Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham returned to “The View” as a guest host on Tuesday, and she had a little fun — at her own expense. During the show, Grisham poked fun at the fact that, as press secretary, she gave zero press briefings.
As part of the entire “Day of Hot Topics” special, the women discussed Karine Jean-Pierre’s first press briefing from Monday. Jean-Pierre took over the position as President Joe Biden’s press secretary from Jen Psaki, and naturally, not everyone was completely satisfied with her debut.
But, the hosts of “The View” praised her for doing exactly what the job entails — including just getting in front of the press. That was something that Grisham never did during her tenure in Donald Trump’s administration, and she was more than willing to acknowledge that fact in support of Jean-Pierre.
“Before we go, I want to say, our new press secretary, she’s done one press briefing, so she’s already ahead of me by 100%” Grisham joked. “She’s gonna get better. Her first day is her first day.”
At that, the entire table erupted in laughter, but host Joy Behar took a moment to have Grisham explicitly confirm that she gave “zero” press briefings for Trump. Then, Sunny Hostin pressed her on exactly why.
“Trump didn’t want to me to take — at that point, to go behind the podium,” Grisham explained. “He was his own best spokesperson.”
She also added that she technically held three jobs at the time, serving as the director of communications for both Donald and Melania Trump, in addition to being press secretary. So, Grisham noted that it was part of her “deal” with the president that she wouldn’t get behind the podium, partly as a means to manage her workload.