The Young Women of January 6th
Trump is back in the White House, with voters undeterred by the fact that his presidential campaign was an active attempt to stay out of jail. His actions as he left office in 2020 are the source of his concern, and also the concern of many never-Trump republicans who voted blue for the first time in their lives. The events of January 6th have been studied by journalists and pieced together with the highly publicized testimonies from the hearings called by the committee led by Elizabeth Cheney. Over the course of that investigation, the sources that have been most forthcoming, and followed their testimony by campaigning to keep Trump out of office, were three young women. Cassidy Hutchinson continues to be a familiar name, but joining her in the effort, then and now, are Sarah Matthews and Alyssa Farah Griffin, both of whom also worked in the White House leading up to the Big Day. In light of the results on Wednesday, I believe that the spotlight should shine on the bravery of these three women, using entirely their own words and my impression from watching their testimonies.
“People Will Die.”
Throughout the coverage of January 6th, and the ensuing investigation, there were claims that one of the many texts sent to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that day was a message insisting that Trump condemn the riot, saying that “people will die.” CNN told the world in December 2021 that the text was real, and that it was sent by Alyssa Farah Griffin.
Griffin came to the White House, at the urging of Mark Meadows, from her job as the Pentagon press secretary. Before holding that position, she was Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary from October 2017 to September 2019. In addition to being exceptionally qualified, Griffin stands out in this story as someone who should have had significantly more pull than she did according to the traditions of her job description.
While she was forthcoming and voluntarily participated in speaking on the record with the January 6th select committee, Griffin resigned from her position as White House Director of Strategic Communications on December 4th, 2020, and was therefore not present as the dark day unfolded. However, her testimony revealed the important details to contextualize the events described by Hutchinson, Matthews, and many others. I was moved to wonder while watching the testimonies how all of this fell on the shoulders of two young women, who, from my understanding of White House hierarchy, held comparatively low level positions, especially when held up against the weight placed on their shoulders. Griffin’s testimony filled in many of the pieces. While Matthews and Hutchinson both were working as assistants in the White House on January 6th, and quit immediately after, Griffin played what should have been a more significant role in crafting the message of the administration and was gone by the time the trouble started. The White House she experienced was, per her vivid description, complete chaos. She described a flat structure, precisely the kind that would place a low level staffer in a position to be screamed at, by name, by the speaker of the house during a riot incited by the President. But we’ll get to that in a minute. The result of this flat structure, and the way Trump wanted his days to go, was people being hired for jobs that they did not end up performing, or able to perform. Hope Hicks was cited specifically as someone hired under a title that had very little to do with what she actually did. Hicks was ostensibly hired as a scheduler, but could rarely get anything on the president’s calendar, much less get anything to stay on there. Griffin said that the way in which staff had contact with the President was also entirely bizarre. There were always people in the President’s personal dining room that had no business being there. Most relevant to the topic at hand, and to voters next week, however, is that the highest level positions in the Trump White House had been vacated a few times over by people that were experienced at the kind of work those jobs entailed, and demanded. The result of this turnover was that no one in Senior Staff positions were qualified for the jobs that they had. Mark Meadows was not qualified to be the chief of staff.
“Can You Believe I Just Lost to This Fucking Guy?”
In mid-November, shortly after election results had been certified and called, Alyssa Farah Griffin heard that admission of defeat from then-president Donald J. Trump in the presidential dining room. One month later, she resigned. Griffin described in her testimony an icing-out of sorts. She did her job as the Director of Strategic Communications to the best of her ability, but McEnany was not on speaking terms with her at this point, and her texts to Mark Meadows on the day the election was called for Biden went unanswered. She says that Meadows assured her that in the initial stages of what Griffin calls “The Big Lie” that Trump was merely going through the stages of grief, and would accept the results. As Griffin left Meadows’s office from that meeting, she saw him ushering the staffers behind Trump’s wildest conspiracy theories being ushered into the office. She knew Meadows was “talking out of both sides of his mouth,” as she put it. After the election, she described a period wherein she took ten days off, barely coming into the office, and when she went into Mark Meadows’s office to resign, he asked her if she could give him a couple weeks. She informed him that she did not like the direction that the administration was going in light of the results, and that she was ready to move on to the next phase of her life. In response, Meadows asked her to stay because they were going to have another term, and that no one was leaving, that “things are going to go in a different direction.” Griffin stood firm, and on December 4th, she resigned for good.
Griffin spoke to the January 6th select committee and the transcript can be found online, but the Justice Department never contacted her to testify in the way that Matthews and Hutchinson did, according to Griffin. Her talks with the select committee were entirely voluntary, and she provided invaluable insights. Cassidy Hutchinson’s book also reveals that Griffin was instrumental in getting Hutchinson into a better position to tell the truth as she knew it, an act of courage that would not have been possible under counsel from her Trump appointed lawyer. Griffin continues to be an important part of the conversation, and lent her voice to coverage on election night on the way forward. She has continued to lend her voice to the fight against Donald Trump, and to give credit and platform to the women she worked with and remained close to after the 2020 election, including Cassidy Hutchinson and Sarah Matthews.
“I knew he was not a good man, but I wanted him to be surrounded by people of good character.”
Sarah Matthews was the deputy press secretary of the Trump administration from June 2020 to January 2021. She was just 25 years old when she walked out of the White House, and 27 years old when she testified. Matthews resigned on January 6th. Like Hutchinson, she could not defend the actions taken by Trump and his chief of staff Mark Meadows in the course of performing the duties of her job description. According to Matthews, when in conversation with Tim Miller from the Bulwark Podcast, she went into the job knowing that Trump was not a good man, but she wanted to be part of doing the right thing for the country. She wanted him to be surrounded by people of good character.
On January 6th, she watched people at all levels of the administration beg Donald Trump to call off the building riot, walk back his call to action, and declaratively end any stirrings of violence. This account matches the well publicized account provided by Hutchinson during her testimony and in interviews afterward. Mattews’s job as spokesperson would be to stand in front of cameras and defend his decision to not lift a finger, and she could not defend that. On the day in question, Sarah Matthews spoke to Kayleigh McEnany about convincing Trump to call off the rioters, and watched things unfold with Ben Williamson, the acting director of communications in Alyssa Farah Griffin’s absence. Williamson was also senior aid to Mark Meadows. Williamson, McEnany, and Matthews agreed to go to their bosses and make the recommendation that the president call the whole thing off declaratively. That the messages never got through is no surprise, given the flat structure Griffin described. In the Trump White House, everyone was everywhere.
Testimony given by people involved that day, particularly Matthews and Hutchinson, centered emphatically on concern regarding the tweet about Mike Pence. Matthews testified that the tweet about Pence was “the last thing that was needed”, because she saw firsthand that his followers hang on every word that he says, and when he tweeted that, he was giving people the green light to do “what needed to be done” in the way that Pence had failed. For Matthews, McEnany was still speaking to her and on this day in particular, the two were in frequent contact. Matthews told McEnany in that moment to tell the president that he needed to declaratively call for peace and an end to the violence, to which McEnany replied that the president sent a tweet. Matthews’s response reflected the signal that his followers at the capitol got from that tweet- she told McEnany then and there that the tweet didn't go far enough to condemn violence and call the whole thing off. McEnany reported to Matthews that the president needed to be convinced to include any words about peace at all, and that this was as good as they were likely to get. In fact, he resisted writing any call for peace. It was only Ivanka who could convince him to put out the “stay peaceful” language.
“Does It Look Like We’re Fucking Winning?”
For Matthews, that tweet heralded the unraveling of the day. A conversation in the press office following the debate about tweets that she deemed insufficient included a colleague saying that the President shouldn’t condemn any of the violence because they didn't want to “hand the media a win”. Describing this moment, and what came after, Matthews appeared hardened with resolve and an understandably lingering frustration. She pointed at the television and said, “Does it look like we’re fucking winning?”
She was done. She was through arguing the politics of a tweet. She was through with watching this unfold with no admonition from the elected official who had fired the starter's pistol. She reiterated then that the president needed to condemn the violence. According to Matthews, she said that to her, it doesn't matter if it's from the left or the right, violence should be condemned a hundred percent of the time, and she resigned that evening.
She could not defend Trump’s decisions that day, and as a spokesperson she knew it would be her job to do so. She walked out, and risked much more than a job in doing so.
“Things might get real, real bad on January 6th.”
The most publicized story in the events surrounding January 6th came from the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson. She was an assistant to Mark Meadows, the chief of staff at the time, although Farah Griffin describes her as “The Chief of Staff to the Chief of Staff.” She had an unprecedented level of access for someone of her age and experience level, a phenomenon Hutchinson and Farrah Griffin have both agreed could only happen in the flat structure of the Trump White House. She was only 23 when she walked out, and just 25 when she testified before the select committee. Leading up to January 6th, Hutchinson has described the feeling of anxiety and unease that she experienced, particularly as a result of other conversations with those closest to the President.
Pat Cipollone from the White House Counsel’s office was concerned about charges of defrauding electoral counts and obstructing justice in particular, as per his private conversations with Hutchinson in the days leading up, and days before, Rudy Giuliani asked her if she was excited for the 6th when she was walking him to his car. She asked him to explain what he meant, as she had only heard stirrings. He told her that “we’re all going to the Capitol, the chief knows about it, talk to the chief.” The chief was Mark Meadows, Hutchinson’s boss. When she walked back to the office and saw Mark scrolling on his phone, Hutchinson said “I just had an interesting conversation with Rudy, he says we’re going through with going to the capitol”. He answered her, “There’s a lot going on, Cass, things might get real, real bad on January 6th.” This conversation, in Hutchinson’s own words, was the source of a lot of the anxiety she felt in the days before. She has said that she was already nervous, but that night of those conversations, she was scared and deeply concerned. That night, she also received a call from Robert O Brian, the national security adviser, wanting to speak with Mark Meadows about January 6th plans. The plan was in motion.
At 10 am on the 6th, Hutchinson was in a meeting in the Oval Office that included Mark Meadows, and Tony Ornato, the Deputy Chief of Staff. In this meeting, we learned from her testimony, Ornato described to Hutchinson and Meadows the scale of the weaponry at the rally at the Capitol that would become a riot. Ornato mentioned guns, knives, and “these fucking people are fastening spears to flag poles.” Hutchinson said that despite her prompting, Meadows had no reaction to the news about the scale of the weaponry, and Ornato confirmed that the President had been informed of this as well.
Hutchinson’s testimony also centered around the particularly distressing tweet about Vice President Mike Pence. She said that as a staffer, she felt frustrated and disappointed by the Mike Pence tweet. To her, the tweet felt personal as a staffer. As an American, she was disgusted. It was unpatriotic, she said, that the whole country was watching the capitol get defaced for a lie. But Hutchinson’s testimony is so valuable because she was not a spectator. She was in the very thick of the chaos.
Hutchinson heard many discussions that morning with Eric Herschmann, who served as a senior advisor to the Trump administration, during which he said that including the president's requested rhetoric in the speech would be foolish. The lines he was referring to included inflammatory statements about the vice president and telling people to fight for Trump. She said that Trump wanted an off the record movement set in motion so that he could go to the capitol and join the rioters. Thankfully the committee asked her to explain some jargon- a scheduled movement is the stuff that is on the schedule that everyone, including secret service, the public and the press, are aware of. OTR movements include a very small number of staff, and the press and the public are not made aware. Cipollone urged Hutchinson throughout the day to make sure the movement did not happen. It was his belief that Meadows was pushing for it right along with Trump. He told Hutchinson again to make sure that doesn’t happen, to stay in touch with him through the day, and that if they make this happen, they will all be charged with “every crime imaginable.”
According to Hutchinson, Cipollone was also concerned about the appearance that they were inciting a riot. But Hutchinson, and so many others, were not given a chance to follow Cipollone’s, or anyone else’s, instructions to stop the show. Chats shown during her testimony revealed that the staff learned about the attack in real time.
“Get Rid Of The Fucking Mags.”
Leading up to the speech, Trump’s fury was, predictably, over the crowd sizes. He was told that the people in the arena at the ellipse were the ones who wanted to come in, and the others waiting outside wouldn’t come in because of the weapons they carried, which Ornato had listed for Meadows and Hutchinson earlier in the day. They knew they wouldn’t make it past the mags, which Trump was very angry about. Here again, Hutchinson clarified jargon. “Mag” is short for magnetometer. Magnetometers are devices used to detect the presence of metal objects, and are commonly seen at sporting events, concerts, and government buildings.
Trump wanted those taken away from the event at the Ellipse. He was adamant that he wanted more people at his event for the photos of the crowd. He kept telling his staff to “get rid of the fucking mags” so supporters who were carrying metal weapons, including firearms and knives, could enter the rally. He said that they should come in and march to the Capitol from there, and that the mags weren’t necessary because they weren’t there to hurt him. All throughout this, there was still discussion of an off the record movement, talks between Giuliani and Meadows, and also between Meadows and Scott Perry, a representative from Pennsylvania, who other accounts have claimed was central to the planning of the events of the day. He declined to be interviewed by the committee, as far as I am aware. The tone of those conversations reflected his staff was pushing to arrange for him to be at the Capitol.
“Figure it Out, Cass.”
For all her unprecedented access, Hutchinson’s testimony reflects a feeling of being shut out of the conversations that would most critically impact her. Throughout the day, Hutchinson said information was coming in faster than she could communicate it to relevant parties. During Trump’s speech in the ellipse, Mr. Meadows shut the control car door on her twice, and by the time she was able to talk to Mr. Meadows, there was a backlog of information from the capitol and staffers, wondering what in the world was going on. All Mr. Meadows had to say “how long does the president have left in his speech?”
One of the concerned calls came from then-speaker of the house Kevin McCarthy. called Cassidy on that day as things unfolded, and then she texted Deputy Chief Of Staff Tony Ornato and said “McCarthy called me too, asking are you guys coming to my office?”
But Hutchinson couldn’t answer. For the bulk of the speech, she was standing behind the stage, and from that position, according to Hutchinson, it is not possible to hear what the speaker is saying. When McCarthy called her and asked her if they were coming, she was confused because she didn't hear what Trump said. McCarthy sounded frustrated and angry at her, and she didn’t know why. All day she had communicated to people what she knew to be true- the president and his staff are not going to the Capitol. It was McCarthy who told her, “the president just said he’s marching to the capitol, you told me this whole week you’re not coming up here, why would you lie to me?”
Hutchison had no option but to protest, and she told McCarthy she wasn’t lying. That they weren’t going up to the capitol. He said that the president just said it on stage, and to “Figure it out, Cass, don’t come up here.” At 23 years old, Hutchinson had the weight of the decisions of a president, not just any president, Donald Trump and his infamous capacity for tantrums, placed on her shoulders by the Speaker of The House. She assured McCarthy that the decision has already been made not to go, but he pressed the issue out of frustration that Trump had made the claim at all. Hutchinson said she then texted Ornato confirming that they weren’t going to the capitol and then texted McCarthy to confirm that Ornato said they weren’t going. He did not respond.
“He Doesn’t Want to Do Anything.”
After the speech, the President was put in the car and the motorcade, including Hutchinson, went back to the White House. When she returned, she went immediately back to the chief of staff’s office. Mr. Ornato waved her into his office when they made eye contact as she passed. She went into his office and Secret Service agent Bobby Engel was there, looking lost and discombobulated. He asked if she heard what happened in The Beast (car president was put in- side note: Y U C K). He then told her that when Trump got in the car he was under the impression from Mr. Meadows that the OTR movement to the capitol was still possible and likely to happen. When he got in the car with Bobby, he thought they were headed to the Capitol. Trump was very angry when he found out that it wasn’t happening. He said “I’m the fucking president, take me up to the capitol now”, but Engel said they had to get him back to the West Wing.
This is when the infamous story of Trump lunging at his driver took place.Trump tried to grab the wheel of the car, and then used his free hand to lunge at Engel for trying to get him to let go of the wheel of the car. Engel has never recanted this, and neither has Ornato. McEnany had said he wanted to be part of the march but that he’d be happy to go in “The Beast.” He ended up blaming Meadows for the fact that he never made it to the Capitol that day. Meadows had told Trump before he got on the stage that he was still working on getting an OTR movement underway. Hutchinson had relayed to Meadows a conversation she had with Tony Ornato saying that the movement wasn’t possible, Meadows said okay and went to the motorcade. He told Trump “we’re working on it, talk to Bobby”. Meadows said Trump believed Engel should have pulled it off for him, and that Meadows didn't work hard enough to make it happen.
Back at the White House, Trump had read the Attorney General’s AP interview, and threw his lunch against the wall. The valet warned Hutchinson to steer clear of him because he was so angry. Hutchinson helped the Valet clean ketchup off the wall before going back to her office from the presidential dining room.
Hutchinson said Meadows was alone in his office most of the day until around 2 pm. Hutchinson said it was like watching a bad car wreck about to happen, wanting to stop it, but feeling powerless. She remembered thinking that Meadows needed to snap out of it, that he needed to care. She was the point of contact for congressmen and secret service agents trying to get through to the president, and she didn’t know how to snap her boss out of his scrolling and lack of reaction.
“Hang Mike Pence.”
At some point in the afternoon, Cipollone came rushing into the room asking if Meadows was in his office. Hutchinson nodded, and then he informed her that “The rioters have gotten to the capitol, we need to talk to the president”. Meadows said “He doesn't want to do anything, Pat.” Cipollone said “We have to stop this, if we don’t do something people are going to die and the blood is going to be on your fucking hands.” Meadows and Cipollone left and Meadows left his phones with Hutchinson and told her to let him know if Jim Jordan calls. Jordan did call, and Hutchinson went to the dining room to get Meadows’s attention. Meadows took the call, and this is how Hutchinson first heard of the chanting to “Hang Mike Pence.”
Meadows hung up the phone and Meadows and Cipollone came back to the offices a few minutes later. Cipollone said “Mark we need to do something more, they’re calling for the Vice President to be fucking hung” and Mark replied “You heard him, he thinks Pence deserves it, and he doesn’t think they are doing anything wrong.” Cipollone replied that this is fucking crazy we need to do something more. Hutchinson put two and two together- “They” were the rioters. They weren’t doing anything wrong, according to the President.
Hutchinson wrote a note that day saying “Everyone who entered the capitol without proper authority should leave immediately”. Meadows was dictating to her and told her to write it. Hershhmann chimed in and said “illegal” should be written in addition to “without proper legal authority”. Hutchinson and others said that Ivanka wanted her father to send them home and tell them to leave peacefully. Hutchinson informed Meadows at some point that she was hearing that cabinet secretaries were discussing the 25th amendment.
“Deflect And Blame.”
Kevin McCarthy said that it was unamerican, he was disappointed, and that this was not in the spirit of the first amendment but that didn’t stop him from putting all the pressure on the shoulders of a young woman.
The night before, on January 5th, Trump asked Meadows to call Randall Stone and Michael Flynn. She wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but a “war room” was set up with Mt. Giuliani and John Eastman, one of Trump’s lawyers, at the Willard hotel. Meadows wanted Hutchinson to coordinate his movements to the hotel. She made it clear that it wasn’t smart for him to go. She didn't know what the meetings were about but she knew what Giuliani was pushing for, and said it wasn't appropriate for the White House Chief of Staff to go.
Meadows dropped the subject of going in person, and dialed in to the meeting from his office.
Hutchinson said the reaction afterward fell into three categories. Mark Meadows fell into “Deflect and Blame”. White House council and staff were mostly in the “Get him to stop this” camp, and many others were neutral. Many of these figures will surely seek pardons now that Trump is back in the White House. Meadows encouraged Trump by putting in language about pardoning the rioters, though Cipollone thought it was a bad idea. Giuliani and Meadows both sought pardons from Trump for their actions on January 6th.
In initial talks with the select committee, Hutchinson told the truth as much as she could while unable to afford her own lawyer and under the counsel of a Trump-appointed attorney. Alyssa Farah Griffin was the one who helped her make the break, and once she was free to do so, she was able to share more and speak up to tell the story we know today.
So why am I sharing this in excruciating detail, when you could just watch the footage on youtube? Well, for one thing, Cassidy Hutchinson’s book is not on youtube and neither is Alyssa Farah Griffin’s testimony. For another, we are here again. He is going back to the White House. I have my own thoughts about that, which I will share later, but for now I want to share these stories and my apologies to these young women. I sincerely hope we will not fail you again, and that the republican party can become a reasonable coalition once more. I hope that MAGA will run its course over these 4 years, and that our democratic republic will see normality and liberty for all who tell the truth even when it is hard will be guaranteed again. I am reserving judgment on calling doomsday about these next four years, because the stories of these women give me hope. I have hope that there are people who will say something when they see something. I have hope that people we cannot even imagine yet will become household names for their outstanding courage, and I will not share my table with those who say those people will be too late to the party. Hutchinson said she didn’t know how to be in the world if she came forward, and people on both sides have to take responsibility for her feelings of isolation. Remember who you were when you were young, when you didn’t know better. I will close with a quote, as I have used before, from Ted Lasso.
“I hope that either all of us or none of us are judged by the actions of our weakest moments, but rather by the strength we show when, and if we’re ever given a second chance.”
Lastly, I would like to thank Liz Cheney for her role in the creation of that second chance many people needed. I hope that the republican party looks a whole lot more like her, quite soon.
