Three former White House staffers during President Donald Trump's administration warned of a second Trump term.
The women, former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews, former special assistant Cassidy Hutchinson, and former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, sat with ABC's Jonathan Karl and detailed their experience during the Capitol Riot on Jan. 6th, 2021, and cautioned against a potential second Trump term.
"There's critical parts of history that the public would not know" if not for Hutchinson's testimony, according to Griffin, who is now a co-host on ABC's The View.
"Other senior officials ... witnessed them but did not come forward. They did not testify whether it was credible threats about the attack on the Capitol that people showing up that day were going to be armed," Griffin continued. "That there was this scheme to try to stop the vice president from certifying [the election]."
Matthews, who also testified before the committee, said she resigned from her position with former Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on the night of Jan. 6 and was "at peace" with her decision and had not spoken with the former press secretary since her resignation.
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"I knew that I could not walk into the White House gates that day after January 6th, especially as someone who was a spokesperson," Matthews said. "Because I knew I would have to defend that and defend what we saw that day, and [Trump's] dereliction of duty."
The former deputy press secretary said she stood by her decision to testify "even if that meant losing some friends along the way."
Griffin, who came out against Trump in the wake of the riot, recommended Hutchinson and Matthews to the committee to testify.
"I wanna be able to look my future kids in the eye and say, 'When history called for it, I did the right thing, and I had the courage to do it,'" she said.
Griffin also said a second Trump term could "fundamentally" mean "the end of American democracy as we know it."
"I don't say that lightly," she continued, adding the former President had previously gone to "historic and unconstitutional lengths" in his attempt to "steal" a democratic election. "That just shows that he's willing basically to break every barrier to get into power and stay into power."
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Matthews said there was no need for speculation on a second Trump term "because we already saw it play out" and referenced Trump's insistence that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen" and "fraudulent."
"His rhetoric has just gotten increasingly erratic," Matthews continued, referencing an early-December interview with the former President.
Hutchinson suggested Trump's comments about being a dictator only on "Day One" showed he was a "weak and feeble man who has no sense of character and integrity."
Griffin added those who served in the Trump administration were aware of "how dangerous Trump is" and called on former Vice President Mike Pence to call out the former President leading up to this year's election.
"He knows how to use government better this time," Griffin said. "He can put in die-hard loyalists who can weaponize every level of government against his detractors, against the American people, against the media."
"It's almost too scary to wrap your head around what it could look like," she added.
Matthews indicated she would support the Democratic presidential candidate over Trump if he secures the Republican nomination in the general election.
