'Astonishing': Melania Trump aide snaps at MSNBC host for linking Trump racism to First Lady's Be Best campaign
Stephanie Grisham, press secretary for Melania Trump, on Tuesday defended the first lady's Republican National Convention speech, which will be delivered from the Rose Garden despite prohibitions against political events at the White House.
During an interview on MSNBC, host Hallie Jackson asked Grisham about what her team is doing to prepare the first lady's speech so that it will not be hit with charges of plagiarism like her previous convention address.
"I can tell you that every word in this speech is from her," Grisham insisted. "It's very authentic and it's going to come from the heart."
Jackson pressed Grisham on Melania Trump's "Be Best" campaign against "online bullying."
"These online conspiracy theorists are a natural extension or an extreme extension that can be violent and dangerous of the online bullying that Mrs. Trump talks about," Jackson said, pointing to the fringe right wing group QAnon.
"Does she disavow -- given her Be Best campaign -- does she disavow QAnon?" the MSNBC host wondered.
Grisham objected to the question.
"I think there's constantly this misperception that it's about online bullying, which of course gets tied to the president," Grisham said. "It's about online safety and it's about teaching children that there are predators out there online and they need to really watch out who they're talking to online and what they're doing."
"It's really not about bullying per se," she added. "It can be mean, it can be manipulative. She's said that over and over. But it's about online safety as a whole."
When it came to Melania Trump's convention speech, Grisham argued that an overhaul of the White House Rose Garden had nothing to do with the event -- even though the first lady plans to deliver her speech from the location.
"It has nothing to do with tonight's speech," she said, observing that the first lady is "exempt" from the Hatch Act.
Before ending the interview, Jackson asked about President Donald Trump's "false claims, online bullying, things that he said that are racist and sexist and so on."
"Perceived as racist by the media," Grisham corrected the host.
"I think people would just call them -- some of the the things he's said -- racist," Jackson observed. "That is not actually my question. My question is how she navigates that when it comes to the the themes you say she wants to talk about tonight."
"Then it's good thing his wife is up there talking," the first lady's spokesperson said. "Look, they are married. And it's astonishing to me that it has to be constantly about both of them. She is doing her speech tonight. She is talking about children and what she's been doing for children and what she wants to continue doing for children."
"And she believes this president should continue to be the president for the next four years," she added. "So she's going to continue to make that case."
Watch the video below from MSNBC.