The unwillingness to see nuance in people who work in politics might be the death of us all. Sh-tty people can sometimes do something heroic, brave and compassionate. “Good” people can often do terrible, cruel, awful things. One of the things I wish younger people would “get” is political nuance and the ability to see America as fundamentally unfinished, that the work of democracy is not an annual project or a decade-long experiment, but a task for every generation, concurrently. I bring this up because of Cassidy Hutchinson and her testimony before the January 6th Committee.

Hutchinson was fresh out of college when she began working for the Trump administration, and she was Mark Meadows’ legislative aide during the insurrection. Too many people focused on Hutchinson herself, her motives, her background, her “performance,” rather than her actual testimony. Even now, left-leaning people are doing Donald Trump’s work and trying to cast aspersions on Hutchinson herself. It doesn’t actually matter (to me) if Hutchinson was a true-blue Trumper at some point. She’s still capable of telling the truth (under threat of perjury). All of which to say, Hutchinson is facing real danger from the Trumpers. Which is probably why it feels like Hutchinson has hired some PR people and there’s an emphasis on her safety.

Since Cassidy Hutchinson’s shocking testimony that Donald Trump was aware his supporters were armed in D.C. on Jan. 6, and that he lunged at his Secret Service detail in the car in an attempt to reach the Capitol that day, her life has taken a dramatic turn.

“Safety precautions are being taken,” a friend tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, on newsstands nationwide Friday. “She went into this knowing her life would change.”

Due to her appearance last week before the House committee investigating the insurrection at the Capitol, Hutchinson has received threats. She’s also faced attacks from anonymous sources disputing some of her testimony, but at least two anonymous Secret Service agents have corroborated it.

Still, “she’s doing remarkably well,” former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, now a CNN commentator, tells PEOPLE. “I think she went into it with open eyes.”

It has been a head-spinning several years for the 25-year-old Hutchinson. As a senior at Virginia’s Christopher Newport University in 2018, Hutchinson, a first-generation college student from New Jersey, told her school paper: “I have set a personal goal to pursue a path of civic significance.” Soon after graduation, she was clearly on that path, joining the White House in 2019 and immediately becoming a standout as an advisor to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

According to a friend, Hutchinson “believed in the Trump agenda but was devastated by what she saw once she was there. It was a mix of everything, from the lack of structure to the infighting to the backstabbing and witnessing the character of the president that many went in admiring and realizing he is mean-spirited.”

[From People]

There’s more at People about how she’s trying to piece her life back together. It’s kind of clever to position herself this way, with a soft-focus piece in People Magazine. To the Trumpers who read People, maybe Hutchinson will remind them of their daughters or nieces, and maybe they’ll start to think about what it was like for her in that corrupt and fascist administration. It might make it personal to some people. Which is why Donald Trump and his people have engaged in a concerted effort of character assassination with Hutchinson, as well as threatening her.

Photos courtesy of Instar.

-Washington, District of Columbia – 20220628-Former Trump Aide Cassidy Hutchinson Testifies To The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack Cassidy Hutchinson, top former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, appears before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, -PICTURED: Cassidy Hutchinson -PHOTO by: Andrew Harnik/POOL/CNP/startraksphoto.com -062822_Jan6-Commission-Pool_002 This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Startraks Photo for licensing fee and rights information at or call +1 212 414 9464 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Startraks Photo reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded

-Washington, District of Columbia – 20220628-Former Trump Aide Cassidy Hutchinson Testifies To The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack Cassidy Hutchinson, top former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, appears before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, -PICTURED: Cassidy Hutchinson -PHOTO by: Andrew Harnik/POOL/CNP/startraksphoto.com -062822_Jan6-Commission-Pool_004 This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Startraks Photo for licensing fee and rights information at or call +1 212 414 9464 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Startraks Photo reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded

-Washington, District of Columbia – 20220628-Former Trump Aide Cassidy Hutchinson Testifies To The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack Cassidy Hutchinson, top former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, appears before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, -PICTURED: Cassidy Hutchinson -PHOTO by: Andrew Harnik/POOL/CNP/startraksphoto.com -062822_Jan6-Commission-Pool_011 This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Startraks Photo for licensing fee and rights information at or call +1 212 414 9464 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Startraks Photo reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded