Former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is expected to speak at the Democratic National Convention this week.
“I never thought I’d be speaking at a Democratic convention. But, after seeing firsthand who Donald Trump really is, and the threat he poses to our country, I feel very strongly about speaking out,” Grisham said in a statement to NBC News.
“While I don’t agree with Vice President Harris on everything, I am proud to be supporting her because I know she will defend our freedoms and represent our nation with honesty and integrity,” she added.
Grisham served as press secretary to former first lady Melania Trump before she was briefly promoted as White House press secretary, though she never held a single press briefing.
She resigned from the Trump administration following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and has since become a vocal critic of the former president.
“This week, the millions of Republicans and independents who have rejected Donald Trump will see that there is a place for them in the Harris-Walz coalition,” Austin Weatherford, a Harris campaign spokesperson said in a statement.
“We will be putting patriotic Republicans front and center in our convention programming to explain, in their own words, why they are putting country first and supporting Vice President Harris,” he added.
Grisham is one of several Republicans who will speak at the DNC in Chicago this week.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Republican mayor of Mesa, Ariz. John Giles, former Pence advisor Olivia Troye and former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, among others, are also expected to speak at the Democrats’ conference.
Duncan, who endorsed Biden before he dropped out of the presidential race, threw his support behind Harris last month.
“I’m committed to beating Donald Trump,” Duncan wrote in a post on X. “The only vehicle left for me to do that with is the Democratic Party. If that requires me to vote for, speak for, or endorse [Kamala Harris] then count me in!”
“With my home state of Georgia up for grabs, I’m honored to be speaking at the Democratic National Convention and speak directly to my fellow Republicans and voters in the middle who want to move past the Trump nightmare,” Duncan said in a statement about this appearance at the DNC.
