Stephanie Grisham said a 2019 statement attacking Gen.John Kelly was one of her "biggest regrets."- The statement called Kelly "totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great President."
- Grisham told CNN that Trump dictated the statement for her "word for word."
The former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said a 2019 statement attacking Gen. John Kelly that President Donald Trump dictated for her to issue under her own name was one of her "biggest regrets."
In an interview on CNN's "New Day" on Tuesday, Grisham, who recently published a tell-all memoir about her time in the White House, said she "selfishly" didn't want to hold a press briefing because she didn't want to be put in a position to lie. Grisham, who was the press secretary from July 2019 to April 2020, ended up never briefing the press.
She said that she wasn't always honest in the appearances she did make but that she most regretted an October 2019 statement she released that disparaged Kelly, Trump's chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019.
"I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great President," her statement said.
Grisham said she released the statement at Trump's direction after Kelly said at a political conference that he'd warned Trump about getting impeached if he hired a "yes-man" to succeed him as chief of staff.
Grisham told CNN that Trump dictated the statement to her "word for word," adding, "I don't speak that way."
She said she tried to prevent Trump from releasing the statement by playing to his desire to be the center of attention and arguing that it would only elevate Kelly and give him more airtime.
"I remember I sat down, I was on my bed, it was the weekend, and I called a couple of friends and said, 'This sounds nuts, right?' And they both said yes," Grisham said. "But I at the time felt I was his spokesperson, he told me to do it, I knew he was probably sitting there watching TV, waiting for it, and so I put it out, and it's one of my biggest regrets, and I apologized to General and Mrs. Kelly in the book about it."
"So they were not your words?" the CNN host John Berman asked.
"Those were not my - I don't speak that way, no," Grisham said.
"Not your belief?" Berman pressed.
"Not my belief," Grisham said.
"So it's a lie," Berman said.
"So that's a lie," Grisham said.
-Alli Hedges Maser (@AllisonLHedges) October 5, 2021
In her book, "I'll Take Your Questions Now," Grisham details a toxic and dysfunctional environment in the West Wing and shares new and unflattering anecdotes about Trump and those around him.
Seeking to discredit the claims in Grisham's book, spokespeople for Trump and former first lady Melania Trump have denounced Grisham as a liar and a disgruntled ex-employee wanting to cash in on her White House experience.