Stephanie Grisham has been the White House press secretary for nearly three months. In that time, she has held the same number of press briefings that Sarah Sanders held in the three months before she gave up the job. That number is zero.
Grisham may not talk to the media, but she will talk to the hosts of Fox & Friends. She appeared Monday on President Trump’s favorite show and said the press briefing will remain dead, at least until Trump decides to revive it. “I mean, ultimately, if the president decides that it’s something we should do, we can do that, but right now he’s doing just fine,” she said.
She added that the press briefings under Sean Spicer and Sanders had become “theater,” with reporters using the opportunity to ask questions of the government as a chance to become “famous.”
When Fox’s Brian Kilmeade asked Grisham if Trump “took it personal” when the press was combative with her predecessors, she confirmed it. Spicer and Sanders were not able to “get his message out there,” she said. “They weren’t being good to his people. And he doesn’t like that. He is very loyal to his people and he put a stop to it.”
It’s important to note who Trump’s “people” are in Grisham’s telling. It’s not the American public, which benefits from the media’s ability to interrogate the White House. They’re Trump’s lackeys, who he’s is unfailingly loyal to, right up until the moment he’s not.
