Sarah Matthews testifying before the January 6 Select Committee on July 21, 2022 (US House)
President Donald Trump’s former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews blasted Republicans trying to deny the facts of Trump’s attempted coup of the 2020 election.
Some GOP lawmakers at the Thursday testimony of former special investigator Jack Smith attempted to arbitrarily absolved Trump of any wrongdoing, despite evidence of correspondence between Trump and Republican allies and footage of attacks on the U.S. Capitol. Some attempted to make the argument that Trump did not really believe he had lost the election, so his machinations to “find” more votes and other tactics were in earnest.
Matthews, who worked with Trump, flushed those claims.
“Trump knew that he lost, and he had been told by multiple advisers, both in the White House, on the campaign and state officials, that he lost, so that this was a propaganda effort by his part to try to find these votes,” Matthews told MS NOW anchor Ari Melber. “For example, in Georgia, spreading these conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines. He knew that he lost, but he was willing to cling to anything and any excuse in order to try to stay in power.”
Melber brought up Thursday Republican attacks on former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who provided incriminating testimony to the January 6 Committee on Trump’s scheme. Matthews similarly Blasted Republicans who attacked her without evidence.
“Any attack on Cassidy Hutchinson is pathetic, because I know her to be someone of good character, and she is extremely brave for coming forward with what she knew and testifying before the January 6th committee,” said Matthews. “She faced death threats as a result and had to go into hiding. So, I think that it's really rich for a lot of these members of Congress to sit there and attack her when there is no basis to their attacks against her.”
“Cassidy told the truth at great cost,” continued Matthews, “and I think that those who are sitting in those positions of power, who are two or three times her age, should really look at themselves in the mirror and consider what they're doing and how they go to sleep at night, because honestly, I don't know how they do it.”
She further hammered Republicans for “know[ing] that Trump lost a free and fair election and that he tried to overthrow it as a result.”
“[He] caused a violent insurrection. And he is the first president in us history to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. And for them to attack Cassidy is just BS, honestly. And it's really frustrating because there is one person to blame for January 6th and it is Donald J. Trump.”