Ex-Trump communications director says President lied about 2020 election and should consider resigning

Farah said on CNN’s “New Day” that she holds Trump responsible for inciting the mob that stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress’ certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win and allowing this “lie to take a life of its own that the election might be overturned.”

Farah’s statement joins former White House chief of staff John Kelly in calling for Trump to either step down or be removed from office in his final days, an extraordinary rebuke of a sitting President from once high-ranking administration officials.

In a speech Wednesday, Trump ginned up the crowd of his supporters gathered on the National Mall, telling them “we’re going to walk down to the Capitol” and that “you’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength.”

Hours later, the President offered only mild rebukes in social media posts that have since been removed. He told rioters to “go home now,” but added “we love you” and “you are special” while still pushing his unfounded claims about the election. He later appeared to justify their actions in a tweet Wednesday.

Farah on CNN Friday argued that the President should’ve issued a “forceful denunciation” of the riots and urged his supporters to “stand down.”

“When the moment called for leadership, he did not do the right thing and lives were lost because of it,” she said.

She told CNN that she left the administration because she had “growing concerns about the fact that I felt like we were misleading the public with this endeavor to say that the election was stolen.”

“It became abundantly clear we just didn’t win,” she said, adding that Trump’s repeated lies to his supporters “does a tremendous disservice to them, and it worked up this frenzy and this sort of mob that we saw at the Capitol, and it’s just unacceptable.”

Pressed by CNN on why it took her so long to speak out, Farah said she believed in Trump’s policy agenda, but knew “I couldn’t influence outcomes when this runaway train of the ‘election was stolen’ got wind underneath it.”

Asked by CNN if she would support Trump again for election, Farah said, “I wouldn’t.”

“We can stand by the policies, but at this point we cannot stand by the man,” she said.

An increasing number of former Trump administration officials have blamed Trump’s rhetoric for the violence that broke out. Two of Trump’s Cabinet secretaries have resigned, along with a number of White House and Trump administration officials, in the wake of Wednesday’s riot.

Farah argued on CNN that the House should be focused on the coronavirus pandemic and getting aid to millions of Americans.

“Pence has stepped in as the real leader,” she said.

This story has been updated with additional comment and background information.