Hicks: ‘I lived the Mueller Report’

Hope Hicks, elusive and hard to pin down for many in the media, shaped up as a bit of a Greenwich homebody in her marathon testimony Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee. To be sure, her Republican Party-funded lawyer interposed objections to 155 questions — based on the Trump White House claim of immunity.

While she did not answer questions involving her yearlong tenure in the White House as President Donald Trump’s closest aide, she had plenty to say about the 2016 campaign. While the transcript released late Thursday provides little that we didn’t know already, it puts a human face on Trump and his missteps that we could otherwise only imagine.

What was her first reaction to news of the impending release of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump is heard bragging about how he gropes and forcibly kisses women?

“Honestly, my reaction was, it was a Friday afternoon, and I was hoping to get home to see my family for the first time in a few months, and that wasn't happening,” said Hicks, referring to her mother, Caye, father, Paul, and sister, Mary Grace.

At another point, Hicks recalled the hacking of her personal email in 2015 when she mistakenly clicked on a sketchy email link.

“So, somewhere in the dark corners of the Internet, there’s lots of pictures of my family dog,” she said.

More than anything, Hicks comes off as Trump’s main link to the reality of mainstream media and the world inhabited by Trump detractors or less-than-fans. She grappled with questioners not only over the “Access Hollywood,” but the Russia-orchestrated dump of Democratic emails to Wikileaks and her acknowledgment of “white lies” she has told on Trump’s behalf.

At a minimum, she’s honest about herself and her work.

PR people are “often asked to put a positive spin on things, present the best possible version of events,” she said. “But I believe I always did so with integrity.”

Asked whether she read the report of special counsel Robert Mueller on Trump campaign interactions with Russia, as well as Trump’s own efforts to stymie the investigation, Hicks replied: “No sir, I lived the Mueller report.”

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press Former White House communications director Hope Hicks arrives for closed-door interview with the House Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.