Donald Trump cycled through a series of press secretaries whose antagonism for the press was biblical, from Sarah Huckabee Sanders to Kayleigh McEnany. But only one, his penultimate one, declined to hold any press briefings altogether.
Stephanie Grisham served as White House press secretary for eight months from 2019 to 2020. In that time, she held no regular press briefings.
Grisham, who is promoting her new White House tell-all, was asked about the lack of briefings in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America Monday.
“You’re likely to go down in history as the only White House press secretary who never held a press conference,” Stephanopoulos said. “Did President Trump order you not to hold briefings?”
“Yes,” Grisham replied. “When we discussed me taking the job, he had already suspended the briefings for about six months under Sarah. And he said he didn’t think we needed any more briefings, he spoke to the press two or three times a day directly, so then my job was going to be to work more behind the scenes with print, with regional and local.”
Stephanopoulos, who served as press secretary under President Bill Clinton, noted that Grisham described a “culture of casual dishonesty” at the White House, before proposing she was “enabling” that culture by not holding briefings.
“I was,” Grisham said. “I’ve reflected on that and I regret
Grisham added that Trump’s false claims he won the 2020 election inspired her to speak out about the dysfunction of his White House and the dangers posed by his potential re-election.
Grisham was bookended by Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany, both of whom made dishonesty and press attacks hallmarks of their own briefings.