2024-08-21 09:10:03
Then-White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham (L) listens to U.S. President Donald Trump talk to reporters, November 08, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The NPR Network will be reporting live from Chicago throughout the week bringing you the latest on the Democratic National Convention.
Stephanie Grisham, a former Trump White House Press Secretary, opened by describing herself as not only a Trump supporter, but a “true believer” who spent holidays with the Trump family.
That belief shattered, Grisham said, because of what she saw “when the cameras were off.”
“He has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth,” she said.
Grisham, who was also an aide to Melania Trump, said that during the January 6th insurrection, the former First Lady refused her request to make a social media post calling for peace and opposing “lawlessness” and “violence.”
Watch her full remarks:
In a 2021 interview with NPR, Grisham said she worried that Trump would use another term in office “for revenge and retribution and probably really draconian policies that will affect our country for a very, very long time.”
Grisham is among several convention speakers from the ranks of former White House staffers and Republican elected officials, including former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former White House national security official Olivia Troye, who are expected to speak later this week.
Former Trump supporter Kyle Sweetser of Alabama, a member of the Haley Voters Working Group, is also set to speak Tuesday night. Sweetser backed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in the primary, hoping to vote for a Republican ticket. But he says he will not vote for Trump again and is throwing his weight behind Harris.
