A second presidential term for Donald Trump would be disastrous for the U.S. and democracy as we know it, according to three former aides for the ex-president. After being elected in 2016, Trump tried his darnedest to act like an autocrat, as if he could act on his own. Fortunately that plane remained grounded, but in an appearance on ABC News’ This Week, three of his former aides said we definitely won’t be so lucky if he wins this time around.
Since Alyssa Farah Griffin, Cassidy Hutchinson, and Sarah Matthews worked for the former president, they are well acquainted with the inner workings of his misfiring mind. When host Jonathan Karl asked each of them “What would it mean in your mind if he (Trump) became president again?”
Griffin, who was press secretary to former Vice President Mike Pence jumped in first with the bad news:
“Fundamentally a second Trump term could mean the end of American democracy as we know it — and I don’t say that lightly. We all witnessed him trying to steal a democratic election before and going to historic lengths to do so, and that just shows he’s willing to break every barrier to get into power and stay in power, but also, I’m very concerned about what the term would look like.”
Sarah Matthews, Trump’s former deputy press secretary, had a different perspective, but it was equally scary.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
“We don’t need to speculate about what a second Trump term would look like because we already saw it play out. To this day, he still doubles down on the fact that he thinks the election was stolen and fraudulent, and then his rhetoric has gotten more erratic. He has literally called for doing away with parts of the Constitution, wanting to weaponize the DOJ, to enact revenge on his political enemies.”
Indeed, we’ve heard Trump threaten Hillary Clinton, his Democratic presidential opponent Kamala Harris, and we certainly know what he and his deranged followers wanted to do to Mike Pence. Trump also made former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s life hell after she testified in front of the House committee that was investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, noting his criticism had a “tremendous” impact on her life, according to The Hill.
Over time she’s come to understand that Trump’s threats come from his own fears and insecurities. This is why he wants to be a dictator.
“The fact that he feels he needs to lean into being a dictator alone shows that he’s a weak and feeble man who has no sense of character and integrity and has no sense of leadership.
I remember that military parade that Trump wanted. Which fortunately never materialized. That would have been a show of force that this country doesn’t need. Ever. The U.S. isn’t North Korea or Russia. Even if Trump loves respective leaders Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin.
Griffin expressed the hope that Pence would detail just how unfit for office his former boss is for office. After all, if anyone knows about this, it’s him.
“Everyone who was in the West Wing and frankly a lot of Cabinet Secretaries, they know how dangerous Trump is. People who have the deepest level of respect for like my former boss, Mike Pence, he’s seen more than many of us have , he knows more than any of us know, and I would just hope in this moment when we are less than a year out — basically a year out from the election, that he would think about speaking more forcefully about the unfitness of Donald Trump. This is not about politics. It’s not about policy. It’s about the character of the man who’s the leader of the free world.”
Karl: Yeah because even now, even three years later, almost, there are many that haven’t come out who know exactly what you know, or more.”
Undoubtedly, people who could speak to Trump’s threats aren’t coming out in the open because they are too afraid to. That’s what I think, anyway. Matthews is urging others to speak up so that Trump never sees a second term in the White House.
“I think it’s really easy to paint all of these Republicans with a broad brush and say that they’re doing it for, you know, their own personal ambitions, which is a large majority of them, but I think another thing that we have to consider as a factor is that a lot of these people won’t come forward even if privately they’ll acknowledge that Trump is unfit or will privately acknowledge that the 2020 election wasn’t stolen. It’s because they know that they will face death threats, that their families will face death threats. I knew that coming forward and speaking out against Donald Trump, I could potentially face security threats or death threats, online harassment. Despite all the personal sacrifice, I knew that ultimately was the right thing to do, and so I would just encourage others to come forward because we’re running out of time in order to keep Trump from being in the Oval Office again.”
Karl added that retribution is the main theme of Trump’s campaign, and he asked the women if they are worried about facing retribution if he lands back in office.
Griffin perhaps, had the best response, noting it is a real worry for her and plenty of others.
“I’ve met with former Cabinet Secretaries who, were on this, you know, potential theoretical list and they’re worried about it. I’ll say this with Donald Trump, is what scares me as much as him, and his retribution is the almost cult-like following he has over his most die-hard supporters. The threats, the harassment, the death threats that you get when he targets you, and he’s really deliberate in targeting, is really horrifying and has no place in our American discourse, and it’s unlike anything that I’ve seen in the decades plus in politics. I’m less worried for any personal aspect for me, but it is — he knows how to use government better this time. HE can put in diehard loyalists who can weaponize every level of government against us, his detractors, against the American people, against the media.”
If Trump is elected, the way of life we know in the U.S. will change for the worse. Few people know Trump as well as Griffin, Matthews, and Hutchinson and their warnings are dire. We need to pay attention.
Here’s Karl’s interview with the three former Trump aides below.
People who worked in Donald Trump's White House says he should never be allowed to hold office ever again.
His own people!pic.twitter.com/uM6f5kEGwc
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) August 29, 2024
Featured image via screengrab.
