Who is Sarah Matthews?
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Sarah Matthews served as Deputy Press Secretary to former President Donald Trump.
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She resigned after the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
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Matthews testified at the January 6th Committee hearing on July 21 alongside Matthew Pottinger.
Sarah Matthews served as Deputy Press Secretary and Special Assistant to President Trump from June 2020 to January 2021.
She currently serves as a communications director for the Republican staff on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
Matthews, who worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign, is a lifelong Republican.
Matthews’s Previous Testimony
During hearings, the January 6th Committee shared a video clip of Matthews testifying.
In her live testimony on July 21, Matthews explained how Trump put out his infamous 2:24 p.m. tweet attacking former Vice President Mike Pence while rioters were attacking the Capitol on January 6th.
“I remember us saying that that was the last thing that needed to be tweeted at that moment,” Matthews said. “The situation was already bad. And so, it felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting that.”
She said that the tweet gave “the green light” to rioters, “telling them that what they were doing at the steps of the Capitol and entering the Capitol was OK.”
After the tweet attacking Pence, Matthews urged then-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany to speak to Trump, asking him to send another tweet attempting to end the violence.
Matthews testified that McEnany told her “in a hushed tone” that Trump “did not want to include any sort of mention of peace” in his next two tweets. “It wasn’t until Ivanka Trump suggested the phrase ‘stay peaceful,’ that he finally agreed to include it,” she stated.
Matthews also has stated that Trump knew about violence at the Capitol before he published his tweet, as confirmed by others during the committee’s eighth hearing.
Matthews Says it Like it Is
Since the Capitol attack, Matthews has not hesitated to tell the truth.
“Make no mistake, the events on the 6th were a coup attempt, a term we’d use had they happened in any other country,” Matthews said, adding that “former President Trump failed to meet the moment.”
When White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified about Trump’s rage on January 6th, Matthews defended her: “Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or her access in the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump WH worked or is attempting to discredit her because they’re scared of how damning this testimony is.”
Matthews To Testify on July 21
While Matthews was testifying during the committee’s eighth hearing, the House Republican Conference publicly attacked her on Twitter. “Just another liar and pawn in Pelosi’s witch-hunt,” wrote House Republicans in a tweet that has since been deleted.
Matthews currently works for House Republicans on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.