Sarah Matthews, former deputy press secretary to Donald Trump, revealed she didn’t vote for the former president in 2016 and “felt really uncomfortable with the things he was saying and doing” after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Monday, Matthews said it was the first time she admitted publicly that she didn’t vote for Trump, who is running for president again in 2024.
“I did not vote for him in 2016, because he did not win my vote over, because I didn’t like the character of the man,” she said.
However, Matthews told Wallace that he eventually won her over with “the policies and the people he surrounded himself with” once he got into the White House. “When the opportunity came around [to become a press secretary] obviously, I jumped at it. But then I think, when he refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, it started this slow burn in me, where I felt really uncomfortable with the things he was saying and doing.”
Matthews, who testified at the Jan. 6 hearings in 2022, resigned the day after Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the election. She now hopes other people from the administration will come forward before November.
“I think they don’t feel the pressure right now, because we still are so many months away from the election,” Matthews said. “But it’s going to come up quicker than we realize it. And so I’m hopeful that, as we get closer to then, once Donald Trump is the nominee, maybe once he’s convicted, then maybe they will feel the pressure to come forward.”
She further explained that she is “sticking my neck out” to encourage other people to also speak out against Trump.
Her reference to Trump’s possible conviction could come into play in any of the four major indictments against him: Besides the Stormy Daniels “hush money” case, which is set to begin in March, Trump is also due in court on charges in Florida that he misappropriated classified documents after he left the White House; federal charges of attempting to overturn the results of the 2016 election; and state charges in Georgia for additional election interference.
Trump’s recent legal woes also include losing a defamation case against E. Jean Carroll and being barred from doing business in New York after being found guilty of financial fraud.
Matthews appeared as part of MSNBC’s series, “American Autocracy: It Could Happen Here.”
The series “American Autocracy” will air weekdays on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” with Nicolle Wallace at 4 p.m. ET.
