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Bulwark Takes

She Watched January 6 From Trump’s White House (w/ Sarah Matthews)

Bulwark Takes

The Bulwark

News, Society & Culture, Politics, News Commentary

4.71.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sarah Matthews was inside Trump’s White House on January 6. Matthews, the former deputy press secretary explains to Sarah Longwell what it was like watching the Capitol attack from the West Wing, why Trump refused to meet the moment, and how that day finally pushed her to resign. Five years later, she reflects on Republican accountability, January 6 fading from public memory, and why Trump’s return to power still shocks her.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the bulwark. I am joined here by Sarah Matthews. Hey, Sarah. Thanks for having me.

0:06.4

You've got the Sarah's and you are the newest employee at the bulwark. Congratulations.

0:13.3

I'm so excited to be part of the team. Your job is going to be on TikTok. I don't even have TikTok because I think it's Chinese spyware. So explain to me why you are like a

0:23.2

TikTok star. I feel like at this point, I'm so addicted to TikTok that I might as well capitalize on it.

0:30.5

And so that's why I'm excited to be working with the bulwark to expand their presence there.

0:34.4

I think, too, that I've just accepted that every major social media

0:39.2

app has all my information. So might as well just give it to the Chinese at this point, too.

0:43.7

So I'm like, okay, well, I enjoy TikTok. I have a lot of fun with it. I've given up on the security

0:49.8

of it. But I think that also TikTok is such a good resource because it's where people are getting

0:55.3

their news now. And so I think that it's important for the bulwark to have a presence there.

1:00.0

When I think about communications, because I am like 20 years older than you are, but I like

1:06.0

also came up in the communications world, Republican communications world. You know, it's like we wrote press

1:10.9

releases and you went to the media. And now it's funny, like you and I live, we both are on

1:16.7

platforms. I'm just a, I'm a Twitter person who will not call it X, but like I am addicted to

1:23.4

Twitter. That is where I live. That is where I do politics in terms of the exchange of it. And then like in between is I think Instagram, which, you is where I live, that is where I do politics, uh, in terms of the exchange of

1:28.3

it. And then like in between is I think Instagram, which, you know, I, I only recently had to get on, which I, and I still don't understand it. Like I, people who send me messages there, if I'm not replying to on Instagram, it's because I don't understand how to do it. And then like the really young people like you are on TikTok and Tim. Tim's on

1:44.8

TikTok. It is an absolute truth that that is where young people are getting their information,

1:49.3

like for better or worse, which is crazy. It's like not only do we live in different information

1:55.5

silos, but like generationally, we're on different platforms. Are you a Jen? Are you a zoomer? Yeah, I'm right in the middle of

2:03.4

Gen Z and millennial. I think I'm technically the youngest year of a millennial. The reason that I know

2:08.8

you and that we all sort of move in the same universe of stuff is that although you are like

2:15.2

a never Trumper come lately, no offense, right? Like,

...

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