According to CNN's Jake Tapper, Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham -- who has yet to hold one press conference since taking over for Sarah Huckabee Sanders -- sidestepped an offer of $175,000 to a charity benefiting children in return for taking questions from the White House press corps for one hour.
Author Don Winslow made the initial offer to Grisham of $100,000 only to have fellow novelist Stephen King pitch in another $75,000, with the money slated to go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
As Winslow wrote, " To @PressSec Stephanie Grisham I'm upping my offer to $100,000. @StephenKing has agreed to put in $75,000. We will donate $175,000 to @StJude in your name & help a lot of kids if you will take questions from the full White House press corps for 1 HOUR in the WH briefing room."
Pressed on the offer, CNN's Tapper said Grisham told him, "If you have $200,000 to play with, why not just help children because it’s a good thing to do? Donations to charity should never come with strings attached."Tapper added, in a separate tweet, "(And yes I have pointed out to Ms. Grisham that in 2012, Trump offered $5 million to the charity of President Obama’s choice if he released his college and passport records."
You can see the tweets below:
I asked @PressSec about this offer to give $175k to @StJude if she holds a press briefing. Her response: "If you… https://t.co/HAKpFBgHct— Jake Tapper (@Jake Tapper) 1578592986.0
(And yes I have pointed out to Ms. Grisham that in 2012, Trump offered $5 million to the charity of President Obama… https://t.co/kMCQ5VjfjX— Jake Tapper (@Jake Tapper) 1578594185.0
