Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham dropped a bold take on first lady Melania Trump’s surprising press event to discuss her relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The first lady addressed rumors over her ties to Epstein and his imprisoned accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, distancing herself from them both on Thursday and calling for a congressional hearing for survivors. A bombshell 2002 email exchange between Trump (then Knauss) and Maxwell made public this year showed the two were friendly.
MS NOW reports that President Donald Trump was not aware his wife would mention Epstein in her speech, but Grisham was skeptical.
“I’m going to say I called BS on our president saying he knew nothing about it, because at the very least, I imagine she would have given him a heads-up if she had sent an advisory out yesterday,” Grisham told CNN’s Phil Mattingly on Thursday.
“Is there anything he could do if she gave a heads-up and he didn’t want it to happen?” Mattingly asked.
“Absolutely not,” Grisham responded, prompting a big smile and chuckle from Mattingly.
“She is — I mean, I’m going to feel like I’m going back to my talking points from when I was her comms director and her chief of staff, but it’s the truth,” Grisham continued.
“She’s a very strong, very independent woman, and when she feels that she needs to do something and she feels very strongly that it’s the right thing to do, she will do it no matter what anybody says, be it her husband, be it her advisers, it doesn’t matter,” she said.
Asked why the first lady had chosen to speak out when she did, Grisham admitted she had no idea. But she theorized that her press team “has been getting inquiries, and she’s trying to head off a story,” or that “she just kind of got sick of all the nonsense.”
“She gets really tired of being interjected into some of her husband’s shadier areas of life and then — and then she will speak out,” Grisham said.
The former press secretary went on to say the first lady “thinks about everything she does” and “does things very strategically,” arguing that she knew full well the timing of her press appearance would make “absolute waves.”
