Stephanie Grisham, former press secretary for Donald Trump, harshly criticized the Republican presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, stating: "“He has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth." Grisham, who also served as a spokesperson for Melania Trump, shared her personal experiences of the former president's behavior behind the scenes.
"I wasn’t just a Trump supporter, I was a true believer, I was one of his closest advisers. The Trump family became my family," she said, recalling how she spent holidays at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. "I saw him when the cameras were off … Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them basement dwellers. On a hospital visit one time when people were dying in the ICU, he was mad that the cameras were not watching him."
She continued, "He used to tell me: ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie, say it enough and people will believe you.’” She repeated a story she has told before: that during the January 6 insurrection, she asked Melania Trump whether she could tweet that there was “no place for lawlessness or violence," to which the First Lady simply replied, "No."
Grisham received applause when she mentioned that she was the first senior staffer to resign on January 6. She concluded her brief speech by endorsing Kamala Harris, saying, "I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people and she has my vote."
The Harris campaign and the Democratic National Convention have been spotlighting Republican voters who oppose Trump and support the Democratic ticket.
Before Grisham, Kyle Sweetser, a voter from Alabama, addressed the convention, explaining that he had voted for Trump three times and regularly donated to the Republican cause. "He told us he’d look out for blue-collar workers," Sweetser said, but Trump's tariff policies adversely affected him. "Costs for construction workers like me were starting to soar. I realized Trump wasn’t for me. He was for lining his own pockets."
Sweetser added, "I’m not left wing, period. But I believe our leaders should bring out the best in us, not the worst. That’s why I’m voting for Kamala Harris. She’s tough. She’s going to tackle inflation. Trump will make it worse. I’m voting for Kamala Harris because she’ll make us proud to be American again."
Other Republicans scheduled to speak at the convention include Olivia Troye, a former national security staffer for Mike Pence; Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican representative and vocal Trump critic; John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona; and Geoff Duncan, the former lieutenant governor of Georgia.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, also made an appearance at the convention on Tuesday night. Despite their fallout and Cohen's role as a witness against Trump in his hush-money trial in New York, it wasn't clear why Cohen attended the event. When asked by a reporter if he would speak at the convention, Cohen replied, "Only if they let me" and, "Of course I would."
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