Sarah Matthews, Trump’s former deputy White House press secretary, is expected to testify before the House Select Committee investigating the attack on Capitol Hill on Thursday, according to reports. Matthews was deputy press secretary during the final months of Donald Trump’s presidency. He was one of several Trump aides who resigned on the day of the Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 2021. At the time, she said in a public statement that she was “deeply disturbed” by the attack and called for a “peaceful transfer of power”. “I have been honored to serve in the Trump administration and proud of the policies we have implemented. As someone who has worked in the halls of Congress, I was deeply disturbed by what I saw today,” he said. “I will step down from my role, immediately. Our nation needs a peaceful transfer of power.” On the one-year anniversary of the attack, Matthews wrote in a Twitter thread that the event was “one of the darkest days in American history.” —Sarah Matthews (@SarahAMatthews1) January 6, 2022 “Make no mistake, the events of the 6th were an attempted coup, a term we would use if they had occurred in any other country and former President Trump failed to rise to the occasion,” he wrote. Matthews also recently defended former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson after she spoke before the committee on Jan. 6. When Trump, his supporters and the far-right news media cast doubt on Hutchinson’s bombshell testimony, Matthews said people were trying to play down the significance of the former aide’s statements. “Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or access to the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump WH worked or is trying to discredit her because they fear how damning this testimony is,” Matthews tweeted. —Sarah Matthews (@SarahAMatthews1) June 28, 2022 Matthews has already voluntarily appeared before the House Select Committee in February. Video of her testimony was played at a June 16 hearing, in which she said Trump’s tweet about Mike Pence not having “the guts” to overturn the election was like “throwing gasoline on the fire.” Before her time in the White House, Matthews worked on Trump’s re-election campaign, where she met Kayleigh McEnany, the former White House press secretary, according to an interview at Kent State University. “In June (2020) she smuggled me out of the campaign and brought me into the White House as deputy press secretary,” Matthews said at the University of Kent. “In this role, I serve as President Trump’s spokesperson and spend much of my day working with the White House press corps. I also develop messaging strategy, prepare Kayleigh for briefings, and staff the president for interviews.” Matthews is expected to appear as a live witness at the seventh public hearing on Jan. 6 along with Matthew Pottinger, who previously served as Trump’s national security adviser and also resigned after the Capitol attack. She is currently communications director for the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. Matthews did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider. Loading Something is loading.
