Former President Donald Trump’s tweets attacking his vice president for certifying the 2020 election was “a green light” for his supporters attacking the Capital, former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews said on July 21 as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack presented its findings to the public.
“It was obvious that the situation at the Capitol was violent and escalating quickly,” Matthews said.
“I remember thinking that this was going to be bad for him to tweet this because it was essentially him giving the green light to these people, telling them that what they were doing at the steps of the Capitol and entering the Capitol was okay, that they were justified in their anger.”
The hearing focused on what President Donald Trump was doing during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol in an effort to interrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
Matthews said that as a staffer who had accompanied Trump to rallies around the country, she was aware of the “impact” his comments had on his supporters.
“They truly latch on to every tweet and every word he says,” Matthews said. “I think that in that moment for him to tweet out the message about Mike Pence, it was him pouring gasoline on the fire and making it much worse.”
In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day.
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