Speaking with CNN host Jim Acosta on Saturday afternoon, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham revealed that former president Donald Trump actively encouraged his staffers to break the law as they saw fit because he would cover for them.
Discussing the number of high-ranking Trump White House staffers who have been subpoenaed by the House committee investigating the Jan 6th insurrection, Grisham said Trump knew they were flaunting the law all along and joked about it.
“I’m very glad that this is happening, and I do hope that it will have, you know, many others who are getting subpoenaed like you said at the beginning, take a step back and realize there’s some consequences here,” she began. “However, my prediction is that the former president is going to tell everybody to continue to stall, they’re going to fund-raise off of this. [Steve] Bannon absolutely I think is going to wear this as a badge of honor and martyr himself almost.”
“You know, this is a very small example compared to what’s going on, but I recall in the White House when we would get Hatch Act violations, that was a badge of honor,” she recalled. “It was a joke in the White House. And you know, the president used to say to us, ‘You know who’s in charge of the Hatch Act? It’s me, go ahead, say whatever you want to say.'”
“I want to also say that I think this makes the 2022 elections more vital than ever because I have a feeling, knowing them like I do, he’s going to tell everyone to stall and that if the House is taken over with his rubber stamp candidates that he want to get in, the special committee will then go away,” she warned.
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