Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, left, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File; AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib
Cassidy Hutchinson, in her new memoir, recounted her dismay with Ted Cruz over a 2020 incident.
Hutchinson carefully planned for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to greet Trump during a tarmac arrival.
But Cruz showed up on the tarmac, which “infuriated” Hutchinson because it wasn’t the plan.
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, in her new memoir, said that Sen. Ted Cruz told her not to be a “tattletale” after she vented to Mark Meadows about him showing up to greet President Donald Trump at a tarmac arrival in Texas.
Hutchinson, whose memoir, “Enough,” was released on Tuesday, detailed the lengths that she went through to coordinate Trump’s August 2020 visit to the state in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm that had devastated parts of the Gulf region.
In the memoir, Hutchinson described her plan to have Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas greet Trump on the tarmac, while Cruz and then-House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana would take part in a roundtable discussion with the then-president.
And she wrote of her dismay at seeing Cruz — whom she once interned for while in college — on the tarmac.
“While we were in the air, an advance staffer texted me news I didn’t want. Ted Cruz had pressured OLA [Office of Legislative Affairs] to get local law enforcement and the Secret Service to allow him on the tarmac to greet POTUS,” she wrote. “I had relayed … very strict instructions from Mark and the president, yet there he now was as we landed, standing next to Governor Abbott, ready to grin and grip with the president, who was expecting him only at the roundtable.”
“I was infuriated,” she continued. “I spotted Cruz and made a dash for him.”
Hutchinson then said that an advance staffer tried to get Cruz to leave the tarmac, which reportedly angered him.
As a top aide to then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Hutchinson said she wasn’t impressed by Cruz’s actions.
“I don’t give a damn about Cruz’s feelings,” she told the advance staffer, per the memoir. “When he wins a presidential election, he can dictate events however he wants.”
Hutchinson approached Cruz to discuss the situation, but the conversation quickly deteriorated.
“I was cordial at first. I thanked him for meeting us there, and promised him I would let the president know that he had joined us for the entire visit,” she wrote. “But the president had a vision for the touchdown, having specifically instructed that only Governor Abbott greet him.”
Hutchinson said Cruz then asked her if she enjoyed her job. So she replied that if he ever disregarded her instructions again, it would be “the last presidential event you ever receive an invitation to.”
“Tell Mark that,” the senator said, according to Hutchinson. “He’ll never take your side.”
Hutchinson then told Meadows about the incident, upset over the situation while also stressing that Cruz ignoring her authority also meant that the senator was ignoring his authority.
“After the roundtable ended, I watched Mark take Cruz aside,” she wrote. “When they finished talking, Cruz walked over to me and warned me not to be a ‘tattletale’ again. I warned him not to disrespect my authority.”
“That was the last time I spoke to Ted Cruz,” she added.
In June 2022, Hutchinson testified before the House January 6 committee, shaking up the nation’s capital with her bombshell statements on Trump’s conduct in the White House immediately after the 2020 election, as well as her frustrations with Meadows over his actions at the onset of the Capitol riot.
When Insider’s Bryan Metzger asked Cruz last year if he’d seen Hutchinson’s testimony, he dismissed the panel’s hearings.
“I haven’t watched any of this political circus and kangaroo court being put on by Democrats,” he said at the time.
Insider reached out to a representative of Cruz for comment.