Hope Hicks Went From “Trump Whisper” To A Month Not Before The “sad” Events Of Jan. 6 – S Chronicles

Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks saw her own vaunted connection to former President Trump wither amid his repeated allegations of voter fraud – and confided in him that before the Capitol riot he “stopped listening to her,” her interview transcript reveals .

‘He stopped listening to me a long time ago. However, it is very sad,” she wrote to former White House Counsel Kellyanne Conway after Jan. 6, realizing Trump was squandering the legacy she helped shape as a close insider adviser.

She wrote with Conway, another longtime adviser who ran Trump’s 2016 campaign, after 4 p.m. on Jan. 6 as the extent of the violence and destruction came to light, according to testimony from the Jan. 6 House Committee.

“This is so awful,” wrote Hicks, whose destructive testimony came at the panel’s most recent public hearing.

‘Yes, it is. I called him. I take it you’re off campus?” Conway answered—indicating that other key advisors had noticed her absence.

Hope Hicks was one of former President Trump’s closest advisors. She testified that she urged him to stop alleging that massive voter fraud had taken place and said he “stopped listening to me” a long time ago.

That prompted Hicks to disclose her newfound distance from the jump and her decision to stay away from the White House. She helped Trump win in 2016 as campaign spokesperson who followed him from the Trump Organization.

It was a stark farewell for someone who’d risen to national prominence as a glamorous and engaging adviser who’d helped form part of Trump’s inner circle. The former president took her to the stage at an October 2020 campaign event in Florida and hailed her as “the great Hope Hicks,” playing off her name while talking about unity and hope. ‘We want hope!’ he said. That prompted cheers from a rally crowd of “We want Hope!”

In her testimony, Hicks traces how, within weeks of the event, she was put off by Trump’s repeated allegations of voter fraud, even after networks declared the race for Joe Biden and a number of courts dismissed his allies’ claims.

She says she advised Trump against it on Jan. 11, 2020, days after the riot.

“Is it really as bad as everyone seems,” he asked her, she says.

‘Yes. Yes, it is,’ she told him.

“So you think I shouldn’t say it was stolen?” the former president asked her.

Hicks appeared voluntarily before the January 6 Committee of the House of Representatives. Trump brought her onstage at a rally in October 2020. But by November 7, she had established that he had lost despite Trump’s cheating allegations

Trump led a crowd that cheered, “We want hope!” She didn’t return to the White House for weeks after the election

Trump gave Hicks a memorable farewell when she left the White House to join Fox News in 2018

“This is so awful,” Hicks wrote to former Presidential Advisor Kellyanne Conway on Jan. 6, 2020. “Yes that’s it. I called him. I take it you’re off campus?” Conway answered

Conway also spoke to the committee that House Republicans say will disband on Jan. 3 when they take over the House

“And I said ‘No,’” she continued. That prompted Trump to tell her, “You really hate this, don’t you?”

“And I said, ‘Yeah, I really do,’” she testified.

Hicks was the White House communications director, then joined Fox News as an executive in 2018, returning two years later to rejoin Trump.

Hicks attended the interview without summonsand shared other information revealing that Trump is leading his efforts to overthrow the election in increasing isolation.

She pointed out that when she discussed hacked voting machines and thermostats, Trump himself didn’t appear to be buying outright what “Kraken” attorney Sidney Powell was selling.

Trump, who was on the speakerphone, went on mute and could be heard telling the others in the room, “That sounds crazy, doesn’t it?”

Hicks recalled three conversations with Trump about the 2020 presidential election, in October 2021 and in March and April 2022.

In October, after a rally, she personally told Trump that it wasn’t “helpful to talk about the 2020 election and make it such a big part of the speech.”

She described her view immediately after November 9, saying after a certain point, “once the relevant legal challenges have been pursued, that it is in everyone’s best interests to focus on the achievements of the administration and preserve the legacy of the President, instead of doing this, go down a path that I thought was pointless.’

She mentioned November 7, 2020 as the day she made the decision. ‘After this [Biden] was declared the winner, I thought it was very unlikely that would change,” she said.

Hicks testified that she felt there was “a two- to three-week grace period, as we will call it” during which Trump could legally challenge the findings but then “move on.”

She said it was “hugely damaging to his legacy and would take away everything he has accomplished”.

She described as an ally Eric Herschmann of the White House Office as someone who “had a very strong sense of reality,” and said Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner “believed there was an expiration date for the legal challenges.”

Along with revealing snippets about Trump and his inner circle during Trump’s final days in office, her comments show she’s reverting to her own role.

She says she was “responsible” for Trump’s schedule before the election.

“And after November 7, there wasn’t really a trial because there weren’t any public events.” She said planning has been moved to the chief of staff’s office.

She says she didn’t speak to Trump on the 7th, the day the broadcasters called.

She describes a November meeting in the Oval Office where she said she was “increasingly concerned that we would damage his legacy” with the voter fraud allegations.

Hicks hired Trump as part of his 2016 campaign crew and then joined the White House. She left in 2018 but came back before resigning just before the end of his tenure

Describing Trump’s response, she testified that he said, “No one will care about my legacy if I lose, so it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is winning.’

She says she went on “private vacation” on November 11-11. 15 because campaigns are “particularly exhausting”.

She was in the Oval Office only a few times between November 6 and Thanksgiving. At one point, Trump said, “How can you admit an election that you won?” She said.

She said she thinks Rudy Giuliani “did a good job” during a press conference at the RNC in which he alleged voter fraud. “Unfortunately, the distraction of his looks overshadowed that,” she said.

She was referring to “the situation with what appeared to be hair dye,” as her questioner put it. But she said attorneys Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis “look crazy.”

She says she was “largely out of control” by Thanksgiving and avoiding meetings. “I just didn’t have a role to play anymore,” she said.

When asked if she was avoiding the president, she said, “I think to an extent.

“I just had nothing to say,” she explained.

“And in terms of being a close member of the team, I just wanted – you know, I didn’t want to be asked about the election, and he didn’t want to hear what I had to say.

She spoke to him on Jan. 8, when she told him she was leaving mid-following week “as the natural end of my time in the White House.”

They spoke on the phone on January 11, the day before they left.

“He asked if I really thought it was as bad as everyone made it out to be. And my answer was yes, I thought so.’

One questioner wanted to know if Trump sounded “dismissive about what happened.”

Then Hicks, who Trump had scrutinized for years to interpret his moods and demands, gave her own best assessment.

“I think he was really curious,” she said.