On the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. government, Capitol and officials and staff there, former chief of staff for first lady Melania Trump, Stephanie Grisham, spoke to CNN about what she witnessed.
While many Republican officials were horrified on that day, over time their opinions have changed. One of those people is Mrs. Trump, according to Grisham.
"The East Wing was telecommuting completely for COVID," Grisham remembered from that day. "So, I was not physically in the White House. As we all know, though, [former President Donald Trump] was surrounded by some extremists who were telling him that the election had been stolen. I believe Peter Navarro just laid out some wacky plan they had, and they kept on telling him that information. So, he believed it was stolen."
She went on to explain how Mrs. Trump thought one thing on Jan. 6, but now thinks something else entirely.
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"I was with Mrs. Trump, as you said," Grisham recalled. "She, at first, was doing everything she needed to do in terms of packing and getting prepared to leave the White House. I then asked her about having tea with Mrs. Biden as would be tradition. And she even shifted a little bit and told me to follow the lead of the West Wing. And she didn't have the tea with Mrs. Biden, which was very, very unusual for her. So, I wondered what was going on behind the scenes or up in the residence in terms of meetings and what was being said to make even Mrs. Trump kind of shift her viewpoint."
In the moment of Jan. 6, Grisham said, "she was very focused on moving her family out. Towards the end, she told me she felt something bad happened. That wasn't anything like what she would normally say. She was very pragmatic. She was always the one to -- she put out the first statement with Charlottesville."
It was only after some time that Grisham said her viewpoint evolved.
"So, it was very odd to me," she said.
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See the interview below:
Melania trump's opinion on Jan. 6 has evolved: ex-chief sayswww.youtube.com
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Jen Psaki explains why Biden didn’t need to call out Trump by name during Jan. 6 speechwww.youtube.com
