(The Hill) — Sarah Matthews is set to testify at Thursday’s prime-time hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, according to Monday evening reports.
Matthews, who served as the former deputy press secretary in the Trump administration, resigned hours after the insurrection at the Capitol, where a pro-Trump mob sought to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results.
The Associated Press and CNN reported Monday that she and Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security adviser, will testify Thursday at the last currently scheduled Jan. 6 hearing, which is set to focus on Trump’s actions — or lack thereof — during the Capitol riot.
Here’s what we know about Matthews.
Who is Matthews?
Prior to her role at the White House in 2020, Matthews worked as a spokeswoman for Trump’s reelection campaign.
The Kent State University graduate said in an interview in 2020 that she met the Trump campaign’s then-national press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, through that job.
She added that McEnany took Matthews with her when she left the campaign to become the White House press secretary.
The 27-year-old is currently the communications director for Republicans on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, a position she has held since February 2021.
Matthews, who had previously been supportive of the Trump administration’s work during the former president’s term, took to Twitter in January to comment on the one-year anniversary of the insurrection, calling it “one of the darkest days in American history.”
“Make no mistake, the events on the 6th were a coup attempt, a term we’d use had they happened in any other country, and former President Trump failed to meet the moment,” Matthews wrote in a Twitter thread.
“While it might be easier to ignore or whitewash the events of that day for political expediency — if we’re going to be morally consistent — we need to acknowledge these hard truths,” she added.
She resigned on Jan. 6
Matthews was among the Trump White House staffers who resigned in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol attack.
“I was honored to serve in the Trump administration and proud of the policies we enacted. As someone who worked in the halls of Congress, I was deeply disturbed by what I saw today,” she said in a statement at the time.
“I’ll be stepping down from my role, effective immediately. Our nation needs a peaceful transfer of power,” she said.
Matthews has expressed support for Cassidy Hutchinson
Matthews also expressed her support for former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony before the House select committee investigating the riot last month, defending her former colleague amid criticism over her blockbuster testimony.
She tweeted that “anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or her access in the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump (White House) worked or is attempting to discredit her because they’re scared of how damning this testimony is.”
She has previously testified before the Jan. 6 panel
Matthews appeared voluntarily before the House select committee in February.
A source familiar confirmed to The Hill that Matthews was asked by the committee about the White House’s activities on the day of the attack.
The committee on June 16 also played a clip from Matthews’s testimony in which she commented on Trump’s 2:24 p.m. tweet that targeted his vice president directly.
Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done,” which, according to Matthews, only served to further fuel the attack.
“The situation was already bad, and so it felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting that,” Matthews said in the video clip.
