- Cassidy Hutchinson, the Trump aide who testified at a recent January 6 hearing, was once an intern for Ted Cruz.
- Cruz confirmed that Hutchinson was one of his Senate interns but said he doesn't work "closely" with interns.
- He also insisted that he didn't watch her testimony, calling it a "political circus" and "kangaroo court."
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony before the January 6 committee last month represented a striking turn for a one-time Trump-world insider who'd spent time working for Republicans on Capitol Hill.
She told her alma mater in 2018 that her time on the Hill "confirmed my desire to continue a path in government," spurring her to apply for the White House internship that eventually grew into a stint as a top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
But at least one of her former bosses — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas — doesn't seem to think much of Hutchinson or her testimony.
Cruz confirmed to Insider on Tuesday that Hutchinson interned for him, but wouldn't comment on her work.
"I have met each of the interns, but I don't have opportunity to work with any of them closely," Cruz told Insider at the Capitol.
Asked what he made of his former intern's appearance before the committee — where she testified under oath that Trump knew that the crowd assembled on the National Mall on January 6 was armed, that he was prone to throwing dishes and flipping tablecloths when angry, that he attempted to grab the steering wheel of his presidential limo when informed that he wasn't being taken to the Capitol on the day of the riot, and that both White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani sought pardons from Trump in the final days of his administration — Cruz insisted that he hasn't watched any of the hearings.
"I didn't watch it," Cruz told Insider. "I haven't watched any of this political circus and kangaroo court being put on by Democrats."
Cruz previously told Insider ahead of the hearings that he wouldn't be watching them.
"I recognize that Washington reporters are obsessed with it," he told Insider on Tuesday. "The American people are much more interested in the disastrous policies, like runaway inflation and gas prices and crime and illegal immigration, none of which corporate media wants to cover."
Meanwhile, one of Cruz's Republican colleagues, Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, recently said the January 6 committee's public hearings had made Trump's grip on the 2024 presidential nomination "much more tenuous."
And Hutchinson's testimony continues to be key to the committee's investigation; on Tuesday, the panel displayed texts from Hutchinson describing the West Wing of the White House as being "UNHINGED" amid a chaotic meeting regarding efforts to overturn the 2020 election.