By any fair measure, the number of Republicans and conservative figures who’ve endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris is an incredible symbolic victory for the Democratic ticket. Harris and her allies are eager to reach voters beyond their party’s base, and the more support the vice president picks up from the other side of the partisan divide, the better it’ll be for her candidacy.
But as the Democratic National Convention is making clear, Democrats are doing more than just thinking about the symbolism, and Team Harris isn’t just relegating her Republican proponents to names on a page. On the contrary, as NBC News reported, some prominent GOP voices were invited onto the convention stage.
Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham disavowed her former boss Tuesday evening and voiced support for Kamala Harris for president in remarks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In her brief speech, Grisham said that she used to be not just a Trump supporter but also a “true believer” who became part of Trump’s family and spent major holidays with him.
“I saw him when the cameras were off, behind closed doors. Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them basement dwellers,” she said.
Grisham went on to share an anecdote about a Trump visit to a hospital during the Covid crisis.
“He was mad that the cameras were not watching him. He has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth,” she said. “He used to tell me, ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie — say it enough and people will believe you.’ But it does matter — what you say matters, and what you don’t say matters.”
The comments were striking, but so too were the broader circumstances: Trump’s former White House press secretary addressed the Democratic National Convention, urging voters to elect Trump’s Democratic rival. To put this in perspective, imagine Karine Jean-Pierre getting a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in 2028. What’s more, Grisham wasn’t alone. Four Republicans addressed the Democratic convention on its second night, including Mesa Mayor John Giles and Ana Navarro, a Republican co-host of the “The View”; and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger is still scheduled to appear this week. If there are some on-the-fence GOP voters who aren’t quite sold on their party’s scandal-plagued nominee (Nikki Haley voters, I’m looking in your direction), Harris and her party are clearly extending an outreached hand.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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