Ex-Trump official reveals 'death threats' still keeping Republicans silent about Jan. 6

Sarah Matthews, a former Trump deputy press secretary, explained that former officials in the Trump administration don't speak out about Jan. 6 because they fear death threats.

In a year-end interview, ABC's Jonathan Karl sat down with former Trump officials Alyssa Farah Griffin, Cassidy Hutchinson, and Sarah Matthews to ask about their cooperation with the Jan. 6 Committee.

Matthews explained why some Republicans still have not come forward.

"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 I think is a large majority of them," Matthews said. "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," she observed. "I knew that coming forward and speaking out against Donald Trump, I could potentially face security threats or death threats, online harassment."

But Matthews said coming forward "ultimately it was the right thing to do."

Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed.

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"Listen, 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 diehard supporters," she noted. "The threats, the harassment, the death threats that you get when he targets you and he's deliberate in targeting is really horrifying and has no place in our American discourse, and it's unlike anything I've seen in the decades-plus I've been in politics."

"He can put in diehard loyalists who can weaponize every level of government against his detractors, against the American people, against the media," she added. "It's almost too scary to fully wrap your head around what it could look like."

Matthews, a staunch Republican, pointed out she will vote for President Joe Biden over Trump.

"I've never voted for a Democrat in my life, but I think that in this next election, I would put policy aside and choose democracy," she said.

Watch the video below from ABC or at the link.