Grisham says decision to not hold press briefings was a directive from Trump

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham on Monday revealed that former President Trump ordered her not to conduct daily briefings with the press during her stint in the role.

“When we discussed taking the job, he had already suspended the briefings for about six months under Sarah [Huckabee Sanders],” Grisham said during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“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 to work more behind the scenes, with print with regional and local.” 

Grisham has in recent days been conducting a series of media interviews to promote her new book “I’ll Take Your Questions Now,” which paints Trump’s White House as having a culture of fear and dishonesty. 

Asked by host George Stephanopoulos if she, by working for Trump, enabled that culture, Grisham replied “yes, I was.” 

“And I’ve reflected on that and I regret that,” she said. “And especially now watching him and so many others push the false election narrative, I now, in whatever way I can want to educate the public about the behaviors in the White House because it does look like he’s going to try and run again in 2024.” 

EXCLUSIVE: When asked by @GStephanopoulos if President Trump ordered her not to hold any press briefings when she was White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham says “yes”: “He said he didn’t think we needed any more briefings.” https://t.co/o3FCyKjxtw pic.twitter.com/SWZ2wybNC9

— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 4, 2021

Earlier during the interview, Grisham said she felt it was “a mistake” to take a job working in Trump’s White House. 

“He will probably have some pretty draconian policies that go on,” Grisham said. “There were conversations a lot of times that people would say, ‘That’ll be the second term, that’ll be the second term,’ meaning we won’t have to worry about, you know, a reelection.”

Trump last week slammed Grisham and brushed aside the accusations in her book. 

“She became very angry and bitter after her break up and as time went on she was seldom relied upon, or even thought about,” he said about his former press secretary. “She had big problems and we felt that she should work out those problems for herself. Now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things.”