Open in TheBrain

Sarah Matthews spox

<p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">an 6 23</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">he nsamed baby jail but never asked her what policies she was specifically proud of, just said x million voted for him thus his policies must be right/popular</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan on Sunday grilled indicted former President Donald Trump's final Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews about what she experienced during the tumultuous termination of Trump's presidency.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On July 21st, 2022, Matthews testified before the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, recalling that Trump's staff pleaded with him to quell the violence that erupted as lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden's 332-206 Electoral College victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Matthews quit amidst the mayhem.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"I was honored to serve in the Trump administration and proud of the policies we enacted," Matthews said in a statement at the time. "As someone who worked in the halls of Congress, I was deeply disturbed by what I saw today. I'll be stepping down from my role, effective immediately. Our nation needs a peaceful transfer of power."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">READ MORE: 'He will free them all': Rick Wilson warns of mass pardons for January 6th enablers if Trump is reelected</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Hasan's curiosity centered around why Matthews chose to serve under Trump in the first place:</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">I've gotta ask Sarah. You resigned from your position as deputy press secretary after the January 6th attack and said, your former boss is a 'threat to democracy,' which I'm glad you did and said. But Trump was accused of criminal conduct before he became president, while he was president, and obviously since he was president. And I have to ask — and I've asked this to Alyssa Farah Griffin and others who worked for Trump and have since come out against him — why couldn't you see then when you worked for him what was so clear to the rest of us? And how much regret do you have having worked for this twice-impeached-now-twice-indicted man also found liable for sexual abuse?</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Matthews responded:</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">I think that the level of what we faced as a country with him denying the election results, and that was a fair election, and then what we faced on January 6th, which was a deadly insurrection that he helped to incite with his words. That was something that was kind of incomparable, I think, to anything else that he had done previously in his career.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Not excusing that behavior. I knew full well the kind of man he was when I went to go work for him. I certainly believed in a lot of the policies that we enacted during the Trump administration, and I'm proud of that time in being able to serve our country. But I think that I felt a duty to serve our country at the White House because I want the White House staff to be people who are of good character. And so if it wasn't someone like me or Alyssa Farah Griffin in those positions, then who would be filling them?</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>And that's what I'm most concerned about now, is if Donald Trump gets back into the White House, who will be staffing him there? Because I think that the type of people that he's surrounding himself with as of late clearly are encouraging his worst instincts.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>
</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Hasan dug deeper:</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>
</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>I understand the argument and it's a fair argument that, you know, if we are not there, there'll be worse people there, there'll be Kash Patel or whatever it is. I get that. </b>But at the same time, do you accept the counter-argument that by being there — knowing the man he was to quote you, you know, this is a man who had called Mexicans rapists and, you know, kidnap children from their parents, told Black congresswoman to go back to where they came from — that you were complicit in that as well? That you, you, that you are gonna have to carry that around, that you did the right thing in the end, but there was a period where you were working for a man who you knew was just off the chart?</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Matthews replied:</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I certainly have some regrets. And you know, I think as a spokesperson for him it was a difficult job because you're not always gonna agree with a hundred percent of the things he said. And obviously, as you outlined, some of those things were very offensive to people. But, he also did have seventy-four million people vote for him in the last election. So clearly his policies were resonating with Americans. And as I've said,<b> I'm proud of some of the policies that we enacted while I was there.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">READ MORE: Chris Sununu: Trump’s 'very self-inflicted' legal trouble is not 'political'</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Watch below or at this link.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">an raw 7 22</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">tom b</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>on Sunday, John Dickerson of CBS singled out Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) for flagrantly lying about the latest House committee hearing on the Jan 6th Capitol insurrection with a pair of tweets -- one of which was later deleted.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Dickerson pointed out, the hearings have painted a portrait of Donald Trump who not only encouraged the rioters to storm the Capitol and send lawmakers fleeing, but the latest installment demonstrated that he did nothing for over three hours to halt the violence -- based on testimony from White House staffers who were in attendance that day.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Writing, "The hearing this past week offered a clear example of the instinct of accommodating the inexcusable. The committee outlined how, on January 6, President Trump did nothing for three hours to stop the rioting at the Capitol, despite the presidential obligation 'to preserve, protect and defend,'" he added, "But Donald Trump was like a fire chief who did nothing more than warm his face in the flames."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the political analyst,<b>&nbsp;"By the standard of any profession, a failure this grave would disqualify a person from the job," but that hasn't stopped the Trump apologists from running to defend him -- including Stefanik who occupies a GOP leadership position in the House.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">As Dickerson pointed out, "the conditioned response is to distract. So, the office of the third most powerful member of House Republican leadership tweeted about the hearing: 'All hearsay,'" with the CBS correspondent adding, "It wasn't! Trump officials were&nbsp;<em>under oath</em>&nbsp;recounting their direct experience trying to get the president to act</span>."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Additionally, Stefanik's office had a part in a tweet that labeled White House staffer Sarah Matthews, "just another liar and pawn in Pelosi's witch-hunt." That tweet was later deleted.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"... by attacking the witnesses, Trump defenders admit that they have no evidence he did his job," he wrote before adding, "At issue is more than the actions (or inaction) of a single president, but the standards of the presidency, and whether a large portion of those who the founders relied on to maintain those standards have become practiced in lowering them … or casting them aside entirely."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">===</font></p>