Former Trump press secretary says he mocked his supporters as ‘basement dwellers’
In brief remarks at the beginning of Tuesday night’s programming, Grisham first laid out her Trump bona fides: She wasn’t just a supporter of the former president, she said, but “a true believer” and one of his closest advisers.
“The Trump family became my family. I spent Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s at Mar-a-Lago. I saw him when the cameras were off,” Grisham said.
Grisham claimed that, behind closed doors, Trump mocked his supporters as “basement dwellers” and once, on a hospital visit, he was upset that cameras were focused on intensive care unit patients rather than on him.
“He has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth,” she said. “He used to tell me, ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie. Say it enough, and people will believe you.’”
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Grisham said her last straw was the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, when a pro-Trump mob overran the U.S. Capitol seeking to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral win. The violent attack resulted in the death of five people, including a police officer and a woman shot by police. Two other officers who were on duty that day later died by suicide, and more than 100 officers were injured.
“On Jan. 6, I asked Melania if we could at least tweet that while peaceful protest is the right of every American, there’s no place for lawlessness and violence. She replied with one word: ‘No,’” Grisham said. Behind her, an image of the alleged text conversation flashed on a screen.
Grisham said she became the first senior Trump staffer to resign that day because she “couldn’t be part of the insanity any longer.” There would be several more Trump staffers who cited the Capitol attack as reason to quit the administration.
Grisham said Tuesday she was advocating for a Democrat at the convention because she loved her country more than her party.
“Kamala Harris tells the truth, she respects the American people and she has my vote,” Grisham said.
Her remarks received a warm reception and loud applause from the Democratic crowd — as well as a rebuke from the Trump campaign.
“Stephanie Grisham is a stone cold loser who clearly suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome and many other mental issues,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in an email, in response to her speech. “She’s a liar and a fraud, and it’s laughable she’s willing to step behind a podium at the DNC but was too scared to step behind the podium at the White House.”
The Trump family has distanced themselves from Grisham since she left the Trump administration, but especially after Grisham published a memoir in 2021 in which she called working for the former president a “classic abuse relationship.” At the time, a Trump spokeswoman dismissed the book as an attempt to “cash in … and sell lies about the Trump family,” while a representative for Melania Trump called Grisham “a deceitful and troubled individual who doesn’t deserve anyone’s trust.”
Grisham has been among several Republicans to agree to speak at the convention to encourage people to vote for Harris over Trump. Others have included John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Ariz., and former Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump."
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