Former Trump White House deputy press secretary: 'I don’t think we can survive a second term'
Although conservative Republican Sarah Matthews has endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, the former White deputy press secretary for the Trump Administration recently told the Washington Post she will vote for President Joe Biden if Donald Trump wins her party's nomination.
Matthews, who resigned from the Trump Administration after the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building, told the Post, "We can survive bad policy from a second Biden Administration, but I don't think we can survive a second Trump term in terms of our democracy."
Matthews discussed the state of the election with CNN's Jim Acosta on Super Tuesday, stressing after the Capitol riot, she didn't expect Trump to be the likely GOP presidential nominee in 2024.
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Matthews told Acosta, "I think if you would have told me back on January 6, 2021 that just a couple of years later, we would find ourselves in this position — that he is still the leader of the Republican Party, and is on his way toward clenching the nomination — I would probably be shocked. And it's shocking because so many Republicans, in the immediate aftermath of January 6, condemned Donald Trump for his efforts to try to overturn the election — and his failure on January 6. And now, many of those people have kissed the ring and cozied up to him."
Matthews continued, "And so, it is disappointing. And I find a little bit of hope, though, in the fact that Nikki Haley is still in this race — that she's been able to win about 40 percent of the vote in some of the states that we've seen thus far. And it shows me that there is a growing shift in the Republican Party of folks who want to leave Donald Trump behind, but obviously, it's not enough. He still has this large hold on the base."
The former White House press secretary noted that she whatever happens on Super Tuesday, she hopes Haley stays in the race through the Republican National Convention "if she has the resources and the ability to do so."
Matthews recalled being in the West Wing on January 6, 2021 and hoping Trump would urge the rioters to quit attacking the U.S. Capitol Building. Eventually, Matthews told Acosta, he did — but not as soon as he should have.
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Mathews remembered, "I was trying to do everything in my power to try to get Donald Trump to stop the violence, because I knew that his supporters would only listen to him…. Obviously, it took hours and hours and hours for him to do so…. And so, he reluctantly, finally did. But that was already after much of the violence had already happened and the Capitol Police had already regained control of the building…. I think he didn't speak up because he enjoyed what was happened."
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