Stephanie Grisham faced some tough questions from the ladies on The View regarding why she left the Trump administration.
According to Decider, the former White House press secretary took accountability for taking part in a divisive administration, one she admitted on Tuesday’s episode made her gay son “ashamed.” Wednesday, however, as the women talked about the first of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, Guy Reffit, being found guilty, Sunny Hostin asked Grisham why it took this horrible moment in U.S. history for her to leave.
"Why did it take an insurrection to get you to quit?" She asked, with Grisham responding that she had tried to resign several times, but it took going to the West Wing of the White House to realize how awful her predicament was.
“I realized it was a really bad environment,” she said, according to Decider. “I hadn’t seen with my own eyes some of the things that he did and said…I think the problem is, though, that I believed in him in the beginning.”
Behar asked another question many in the audience were thinking: “What did you believe in? His policies?” she said. “Because you knew he was a sexist misogynist.”
Grisham said she was “moved” by the supposed passion the country felt about Trump. She also said she was “excited that a businessman was gonna come in and hopefully treat our country like a business.” But when Hostin corrected her and said that Trump is a “fake businessman,” Grisham replied, “I didn’t [know that at the time.] I honestly didn’t.”
Whoopi Goldberg also corrected Grisham when she alleged that half of the country supported Trump. "A quarter of the country," Goldberg said. "And Russia."
Despite saying she would still struggle voting for a Democrat if Trump didn’t run for office again in 2024 (which is confusing, since she acknowledges that Trump wasn’t good for the country after all), she said that she is focused on helping current Trump supporters realize the truth about him.
“I am sorry. I will say that to the end of time,” she said, “but I want to give people an off ramp, and I’m gonna do everything I can to educate people, not talk down to them. Educate people about who he really is. That he is a con man. That this is a cult-like thing. And that it’s okay to just get off.”
The View has had a musical chairs-esque rotation of conservative voices on the show, and it’s not too often there’s a conservative voice that actually deals with the reality of the Trump administration. While Grisham is clearly aware of the side-eye she’s been receiving, hearing she’s trying to undo some of her bad karma is a modest start to picking up the pieces.
