Ex-Trump aide Grisham among GOP speakers expected to address DNC

Former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham will speak at the Democratic National Convention this week in Chicago, shortly after becoming one of the highest-profile Republican critics of former President Trump to back Vice President Harris.

Grisham said in a statement that she would be addressing this week’s convention, saying she feels “very strongly about speaking out.”

“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,” Grisham said.

Grisham, whose attendance was first reported by NBC News, served as press secretary to former first lady Melania Trump and for a stint as White House press secretary, though she never held a single briefing with reporters. She resigned following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and has since become an outspoken critic of the former president.

The former Trump aide will be one of several Republican critics of the former president to appear on stage in Chicago.

“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, the Harris campaign’s director of Republican engagement, 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.”

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) is also expected to speak, as is John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Ariz. Both are Trump critics.

Additionally, Olivia Troye, a former homeland security aide to former Vice President Mike Pence, is expected to speak at the Democratic convention, as is former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R). Both Troye and Duncan have become regular critics of Trump.

“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.

In addition to those more high-profile names, the Harris campaign said there would be multiple other Republican voices featured, including a video from former conservative activist Rich Logis and remarks from Kyle Sweetser, an Alabama Republican.

Republicans had a handful of former Democrats speak at their convention in Milwaukee, as well.

Four such individuals were among the “everyday Americans” who spoke at the Republican National Convention last month about why they were no longer voting Democrat and instead backing Trump in November.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), who changed parties in 2019, also spoke at the GOP convention.

Updated at 9:18 a.m. EDT