Wednesday’s “Morning Joe” panelists tore into former Trump White House officials like former aide Stephanie Grisham for using books to dish on former president Donald Trump after their employment instead of using their positions within the administration to make meaningful change.
“This book says a lot about what was going on inside the White House at the time but the frustration I think a lot of us feel is a lot of these people were seeing these things play out in real time but waited until after to write a book,” co-host Mika Brzezinski said after discussing some of the many juicy tidbits from former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham’s forthcoming tell-all.
Guest Katty Kay added, “The Trump administration was full of people who could have called out the president in real time for instances like this time, for areas of national security, frankly, when he treated Vladimir Putin in one way and pretended he was treating him in another way. They failed to do so. This was not, obviously, an administration that was full of profiles in courage.”
Kay continued: “Now there is Stephanie Grisham making money out of a book when it’s too late to have an impact, to say he said another thing when actually he was meaning another thing. It would have been much more courageous of her, obviously — not just courageous for her, but helpful for the state of the country and the health of the country — for her to call this out in real time.”
Co-host Willie Geist reminded viewers that Grisham, unlike others who left Trump’s orbit to become authors, was affiliated with Trump from the very beginning of his political ascent. She was a key press wrangler during his 2016 campaign, then spent almost all of his four years in office working in various capacities in the White House before resigning the night of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Associated Press White House reporter Jonathan Lemire pointed out that Grisham’s book, like its predecessors, could be about reputation salvaging, résumé beefing or personal fundraising, but it’s especially noteworthy given how close she was to the former president and first lady. Her reasoning could also be “a guilty conscience,” he suggested.