Donald Trump’s former White House secretary declared her support for Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night, slamming the Republican nominee in her speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Stephanie Grisham, who resigned after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said she was a “true believer” and that the Trump family became her family. But she saw a side not everyone sees.
“I saw him when the cameras were off,” Grisham said. “Behind closed doors, Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them basement-dwellers.”
She admitted that while Trump was in office, she never held a typical White House briefing because she never wanted to “stand on the podium and lie.”
“Now here I am behind a podium advocating for a Democrat and that’s because I love my country more than my party,” she said.
Grisham recalled several troubling stories, including a time when Trump was visiting dying patients in the ICU and he was upset that “cameras weren’t on him.”
After the Jan. 6 insurrection, Grisham asked Trump’s wife Melania whether she could tweet that there was “no place for lawlessness or violence.” The former first lady responded “No,” via text message. Grisham revealed the entire text exchange to the crowd at the DNC.
Grisham is one of many Republicans against Trump who spoke at the DNC. Kyle Sweetser, a Republican voter from Alabama said he voted for Trump three times before he realized Trump’s policies were negatively affecting his life as a “blue-collar” worker.
Conservative commentator Richard Logis, who describes himself as “ex-MAGA activist” also spoke at the DNC via video broadcast, telling voters they “don’t need to agree with everything you hear tonight to do what is right.”
Throughout her speech, Grisham emphasized that Trump can’t be trusted and that he has “no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth.”
“He used to tell me, ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie, say it enough and people will believe you,'” Grisham recounted.
“Kamala Harris tells the truth, she respects the American people, and she has my vote,” Grisham told the crowd in Chicago.