Lying for former President Donald Trump's was compulsory.
That's according to Sarah Matthews, a former Trump White House deputy press secretary. She discussed her experience, in light of Trump's trusted aide Hope Hicks testifying in open court for his criminal hush money case today — that she and others adopted a messaging strategy that was to take the 45th president at his word and then hang on for dear life.
"It's just obvious that Donald Trump is a pathological liar," Matthews told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace. "It's not surprising he would tell his staff these things."
ALSO READ: Trump vs. history: Former presidents typically implode on their comeback tours
"They're serving him and they spread these lies, whether they did so knowingly or unknowingly."
She was referring to Hicks being forced to be the sacrificial mouthpiece when a Wall Street Journal article was inquiring about hush money paid to Playboy ex-playmate Karen McDougal, who alleged she carried on an affair with Trump.
Hicks, always playing the good soldier, did the denying dance.
“We have no knowledge of any of this,” she said, referring to an agreement involving McDougal and the National Enquirer buying the story rights.
Hicks also said any suggestion of an affair between McDougal and Trump was “totally untrue.”
Hicks explained in court today that she was taking orders and trusted Trump.
"We were all just following his lead,” she said. “He knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it.”
Matthews explained that she has "a little bit of sympathy for her" in this case and believes she likely was misled in some way.
And yet even Matthews acknowledged that nobody in the White House was blind to the truth.
"When you go to work for Donald Trump, I think everyone, including myself, was aware of the kind of man he was and his character, and you kind of sign up for that knowing that," she said. "He did have his good moments and could be, you know, a good boss in some ways."
"But for the most part, I think, you knew what you were signing up for in that role."
So why did she hop on the Trump POTUS pirate ship?
"For me personally I decided to take the job at the White House because I believe in the majority of the policies we were pushing."
For Hicks though, Matthews believes she was there mostly out of loyalty — having worked for the family since 2014, first for Ivanka Trump and then the Trump Organization before rocketing into the campaign and to Washington D.C.
"I think with the case of Hope specifically, this was someone who wasn't even in the political world," she said. "She kind of just got dragged into it, caught up in all of it."
