‘Thank You, Cassidy Hutchinson’: Drama at the Jan. 6 Hearings

To the Editor:

Re “Witness Details Trump’s Rage and Meadows’s Inaction on Jan. 6” (Live updates, nytimes.com, June 28):

Thank you, Cassidy Hutchinson, for testifying before the Jan. 6 committee. History will remember you just as it has the former White House counsel John Dean, whose testimony helped bring down Richard Nixon nearly 50 years ago.

If only your former boss, the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, as well as Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman — all of whom reportedly sought presidential pardons for their roles leading up to the insurrection at the Capitol — had your guts. Americans who believe in the rule of law and the Constitution are indebted to you, Ms. Hutchinson.

Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach, Calif.

To the Editor:

Watching the Jan. 6 House committee hearings has been a rare opportunity to focus on truth rather than “alternate facts.” What has surprised me the most is seeing how many men and women of integrity, honor and loyalty to the Constitution worked in the Trump administration — just enough to save our democracy.

However, I fear that what Donald Trump has learned from watching the hearings is that he will never make that mistake again. If (heaven forbid) he returns to the White House in 2025, he will do everything possible to ensure that he is surrounded by loyalist sycophants who care only about the ends, not the means.

If the Jan. 6 hearings have proven anything, it is that the ends do not justify this man.

Doug Smith
Lynnwood, Wash.

To the Editor:

It is a fact that the earth is not flat. People who assert that it is flat — against all evidence — are either lying or are delusional.

It is a fact that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. His denial of his loss — against all evidence — means that either he is lying or he is delusional.

We know what it means to lie; The Washington Post documents that Mr. Trump tallied more than 30,000 false or misleading claims during his four years in the White House.

Psychiatrists and psychologists categorize a delusion as maintaining false beliefs even when confronted with facts; it is usually a result of mental illness.

Which is it?

Robert Selverstone
Westport, Conn.
The writer is a psychologist.