Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham says she believes her “enabling” of former President Trump cost lives during the coronavirus pandemic.
Grisham made the comments on Tuesday during an appearance on CNN’s “New Day” where she was promoting her new book, “I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House.”
Co-host Brianna Keilar directly asked Grisham if she felt her “enabling” of the president cost lives.
“I do,” Grisham said.
“I think the way we handled COVID was tragic,” she continued. “I think that the president’s vanity got in the way. He was working for his base. He was not working for this country. He, you know, he didn’t wear a mask quickly enough.”
Grisham also praised former first lady Melania Trump, for whom she served as chief of staff before she resigned after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, for doing public service announcements during the pandemic and wearing masks.
“As naive as this is, I kept hoping she would convince her husband, you know, ‘please get out there, Donald, get out there,’ ” Grisham said. “But yes, again. I was part of that, and I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself with respect to COVID. I don’t think I can ever redeem myself.”
Grisham’s book was officially released on Tuesday.
Excerpts of the book that have been reported over the past few weeks have given insights into the former president and first lady, as well as the former president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, both of whom served as senior White House advisers.
During the CNN interview, Grisham explained that she was “blocked off” from the West Wing while working for Melania Trump, so she didn’t see a lot of the “toxic culture” or decisions being made.
Grisham added that she was able to rely more on Melania Trump when she took the job as press secretary because she was still working for the first lady.
“That was dumb, too,” Grisham said. “But I really believed in them at first, and I thought I had a friendship with her, and I stayed too long. And there’s just nothing else I can do or say about that.”