On Saturday, Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of supporters in Dayton, Ohio, warning about a 'bloodbath' if he lost the 2024 election. His campaign quickly claimed he was only talking about the US auto industry, but Sarah Matthews, a former Deputy White House Press Secretary, who worked for Trump for 7 months, said the comment is like a call to action for his supporters.
Matthews appeared on “Inside Jen Psaki” on Monday night and talked about her previous boss' behavior. Psaki and Matthews both agreed that the comment should be carefully considered and taken seriously.
Matthews, who resigned after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack, explained that the Trump campaign is downplaying the significance of this one comment, but it fits a pattern of extreme comments and increasingly violent rhetoric from him.
She also implied that Trump might be urging his supporters to start another rebellion. She pointed out that his previous messages led to the events of January 6, where he encouraged them to come to the Capitol and said it would be a wild day that they needed to save the country.
“So, he’s putting these kinds of messages out there, hoping that they’ll act on them.”
Matthews also commented on the Trump campaign's statement that the “bloodbath” referred to is purely economic. She said, “And in my eyes—yeah, sure, he could have been talking about the economy but I think when you’re looking at who the messenger was of this message, this is a man who helped incite a deadly insurrection on our nation’s Capitol. So when he’s using terms like bloodbath, it’s really hard for me to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
The former Trump employee also admitted that she “couldn’t imagine going to him or even cast a vote for him, given everything that’s transpired,” primarily because of the events of Jan. 6 and Trump’s lack of “remorse for what happened that day.”
Trump defended himself via Truth Social Monday morning, claiming as he has after previous, ambiguously violent rhetoric that he was being taken out of context and was speaking only about the U.S. auto industry.
Trump’s language has become darker as it’s become clear he will be the Republican Party’s candidate against President Biden in November. He has been particularly focused on undocumented immigrants, whom he described as “animals,” and his political opponents, whom he labeled “vermin.”
Watch the interview with Sarah Matthews in the video above.
