Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews said in an interview with MS NOW that President Donald Trump has never recovered from his 2020 election defeat, arguing that his continued promotion of debunked fraud claims stems from an inability to accept the outcome.

"Donald Trump has always been a broken man, but I do think that him losing the 2020 election fair and square to Joe Biden permanently broke his brain," Matthews told MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace. "I don't think he's ever been able to recover from that, because he looked at someone like Joe Biden and thought, 'how could I lose to this guy?' I mean, he called him 'Sleepy Joe.' And then obviously it affected him because he's a narcissist. His ego won't allow him to see the facts for what they are, that there was no election fraud and that it was Biden who was the winner of the 2020 election."

Matthews served in the White House communications office until resigning on January 6, 2021, the day a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress met to certify Biden's victory. She later testified before the House January 6 Select Committee, becoming one of several former Trump administration officials — including Cassidy Hutchinson and Alyssa Farah Griffin — who publicly recounted their experiences and raised alarms about Trump's conduct surrounding the election and its aftermath.

She said Trump's refusal to accept the election results was evident even while she was on staff, noting that advisors had repeatedly informed the president that he had lost and that his legal challenges would fail. More than 60 lawsuits challenging the 2020 results were dismissed by courts at the state and federal levels, including by judges appointed by Trump himself.

"I was in the White House during that time up until January 6th, and there were advisors telling him he lost, that there was no evidence that everything he was trying in court was going to fail, and he refused to believe it," Matthews said. "And when he stopped taking the advice of those people, he surrounded himself with enablers who told him what he wanted to hear."

She recalled that Trump had privately acknowledged his defeat while she was still working at the White House, a detail she said makes his current denials all the more striking.

"I do think that he did let slip privately and admit that he lost. But I think now so much time has passed that he actually thinks that he was wrong, and he believes that he's the victim here," Matthews said. "And you know what? It just makes me laugh when you have all these MAGA people who think that Trump is some alpha male. No, he's the weakest, most thin-skinned baby of all time. I mean, he can't accept the facts for what they are."

With the 2026 midterm elections approximately four months away — contests that could shift control of both the House and Senate — Matthews warned that Trump's continued focus on the 2020 election and January 6 could damage Republican prospects. She argued that voters have moved on from those issues and are concentrated on economic concerns. Election strategists in both parties have similarly noted that voter priorities in recent cycles have centered on inflation, housing affordability, and health care costs rather than relitigating the 2020 outcome.

"The American people are not fixated on January 6th or the 2020 election. They have pushed that aside and moved past it," she said. "You know what they are focused on? They want to be able to afford a home. They want lower health care costs. They want to be able to fill up their gas tank and not have to decide between doing that and putting food on the table for their families."

"Those are the kitchen table issues that they are focused on, and they don't want to see him keep relitigating this," Matthews added. "And all it's going to do is hurt Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections."

Source: Alternet | Video: YouTube