Sarah Matthews, who served as White House deputy press secretary during Donald Trump’s first administration, now predicts the midterms will be “brutal” for Republicans, telling MS NOW’s “The Weeknight” that the president’s party risks losing both chambers of Congress in November.
“Historically, midterms are not good for the party of the president,” Matthews said on Tuesday evening. “But I think that with these midterms coming up, voters feel a lot of buyer’s remorse. They feel like they’ve been bamboozled by this administration.”
Matthews, who resigned from the first Trump administration in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack, said her former boss has done “completely opposite” what he promised to do on the campaign trail. She pointed to Trump’s war with Iran, which she said has “caused the already existing affordability crisis to just be exacerbated.”
According to a new Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, Trump’s disapproval rating has hit a record high of 62%, with a growing number of Americans dissatisfied with his handling of the Iran war.
Because of this, Matthews said she believes “there’s a very good chance that we could see both chambers flip.” That harsh reality, she told MS NOW, is not lost on Republicans in Washington. She said those inside the administration and in Congress likely “see the writing on the wall.”
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If Democrats control both the House and the Senate, “that means trouble for the Trump administration,” Matthews said, predicting that the new majority party would use its power to conduct oversight and investigate the administration. This means Trump and his allies would “face accountability for the first time, which obviously we have not seen them face with Republicans in Congress,” she said.
“Trump knows that he’s been able to have them in the palm of his hand with Speaker Mike Johnson,” Matthews continued, noting that the president has referred to himself as speaker of the House “because he knows that they are just completely worthless and not doing anything.”
But if Democrats gain power, that would change. Matthews said she believes there is a “plethora of things” that could lead to investigations they could launch against the president and his allies. “I think that this is going to be their reality when we have a new Congress,” she told MS NOW.
You can watch Matthews’ full interview in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”