Sarah Matthews, a former press secretary for former President Donald Trump, said Monday that the Republican presidential candidate is believing false narratives about his political opponent because he’s “desperate” because Vice President Harris’ campaign is benefiting from growing voter enthusiasm.
“Trump feels the election is slipping away from him and I think we’re seeing him become attached to easily disproven conspiracy theories, like you pointed out about the AI-generated crowd,” Matthews said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.”
As Harris rises in the polls and gains momentum in the early days of the campaign, President Trump and the Republican Party appear to be struggling to find a consistent message for her.
Trump has disparaged the large, enthusiastic crowds that Harris has drawn, even endorsing a false online theory that the crowds seen in photos and videos were generated by artificial intelligence technology.
“I know it’s insanity,” Matthews said, “but some people will believe it because he claims it. And when he gets desperate, he claims these conspiracy theories.”
Matthews cited other recent examples of Trump embracing messaging that he believes will do more harm than good to his campaign, including a recent interview at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention, in which Trump questioned Harris’ racial identity as a Black woman, saying “she just happens to be Black.”
Matthews also pointed to Trump’s recent rallies in Georgia and attacked the state’s popular Governor Brian Kemp, who rejected Trump’s efforts to “find” votes in the state to tip the 2020 election in Trump’s favor.
“These are not campaign-winning messages,” Matthews said, “but what Trump does when he feels under attack is use these defenses that don’t make much sense in a campaign.”
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for response.
