Their party has been ‘kidnapped by a cult’ said one, while another compared Trump’s campaign with communist Nicaragua. How the Republican rebels really feel.
Former White House press secretary under Donald Trump’s administration caused waves on day two of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Tuesday when she launched an attack on the former president and revealed that he ridicules his supporters as “basement dwellers”.
Stephanie Grisham was not the only anti-Trump Republican to make an appearance at this year’s DNC.
Ana Navarro, Republican political strategist and former national Hispanic co-chair for John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid, and John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona, have also had choice things to say about Trump.
While there were no Democratic speakers at the Republican National Convention (RNC) last month, this is not the first time Republicans have popped up at a DNC.
John Kasich, the former Republican governor of Ohio, and Colin Powell, former secretary of state under the administration of President George W Bush from 2001 to 2005, made appearances at the DNC in 2020 and both pleaded for unity between political parties and questioned Trump’s suitability for leadership.
Here are some anti-Trump Republicans making themselves heard at this year’s DNC.
‘I saw him when the cameras were off’: Stephanie Grisham
Following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol to protest against the results of the 2020 election, which saw Joe Biden elected as president, Grisham was the first Trump staffer to resign from the administration.
At the DNC, Grisham took the opportunity to hammer the former president in her speech, primarily criticising his lack of interest in his supporters.
“I saw him when the cameras were off,” she said.
“Trump mocks his supporters; he called them ‘basement dwellers’ on a hospital visit one time when people were dying in the ICU. He was mad that the cameras were not watching him. He has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth.”
Grisham also shared a text message exchange between her and former First Lady Melania Trump, which she initiated in a bid to encourage peaceful protests.
“What you say matters and what you don’t say matters. On January 6th, I asked Melania if we could at least tweet that while peaceful protest is the right of every American, there’s no place for lawlessness or violence, she replied with one word – ‘No’,” Grisham said.
‘As bad as Venezuela’: Ana Navarro
Nicarguan-American Navarro has been a critic of Trump since 2016 when he attacked Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University. Trump asserted that Curiel’s Mexican heritage was a conflict of interest due to Trump’s hard stance in favour of building a wall along the Texas-Mexico border.
Trump said: “I have a judge who is very unfair. He’s a Mexican. We’re building a wall between here and Mexico.”
At the time, Navarro characterised Trump’s comments as racist and inappropriate. She said: “How dare he? How dare he question a judge’s responsibility, a judge’s adherence to the constitution, because he is of Mexican descent? This man was born in East Chicago. He is an American citizen. He is just as American as Donald Trump.”
In her speech at the DNC – also on Tuesday night – Navarro hit out at Trump for his characterisation of President Joe Biden as a “communist”. She spoke about her own escape from the communist regime of Nicaragua when she was eight years old.
“They refuse to accept legitimate elections when they lose and call for violence to stay in power like [Nicolas] Maduro is doing right now in Venezuela,” she said of Trump and his supporters, adding, “They attack the free press, they call them the enemy of the people like Ortega does in Nicaragua, they put their unqualified.”
Navarro and Grisham said they planned to vote for Kamala Harris in the November election.
Republicans ‘kidnapped by a cult’: John Giles
Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona, said it was time for Republicans to choose “country over party” in his address to the DNC.
Known for his bipartisan approach, Giles has endorsed Democratic candidates in the past, including Mark Kelly in the 2022 US Senate election.
On Tuesday, Giles expressed his dismay that the Republican Party had been “kidnapped” by the cult of Donald Trump.
“I feel more at home here than in today’s Republican party. The grand old party has been kidnapped by extremists and devolved into a cult. The Cult of Donald Trump,” he said.
The Republican Party of his hero, John McCain, the 2008 presidential nominee, is long gone, Giles lamented.
He praised the Biden-Harris administration for its bipartisan cooperation, which he said had benefitted his home state Arizona.
“I’m going to ribbon cuttings every single week, all because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris reached across the aisle and they delivered for my conservative community and countless more across the country.”
He ended his speech saying: “Let’s turn the page. Let’s put [the] country first. Let’s put adults in the room where our country deserves.”
What did other Republicans have to say?
Republican Voters Against Trump volunteer Kyle Sweetser, a former Trump supporter who said he had voted for Trump three times, had some choice words for the former president at the DNC.
“Costs for construction workers like me were starting to soar. I realised Trump wasn’t for me,” he said. “I believe our leaders should bring out the best in us, not the worst. That’s why I’m voting for Kamala Harris.”
How has Trump reacted to the DNC so far?
Although Trump has yet to give any formal response to the Republican speakers who appeared at the DNC on day two, he shared his thoughts about the DNC’s first day with the New York Post on Tuesday.
He said: “I think it was about lies. It was lies about me, all night long they were saying things that weren’t true.
“Every single thing that they talked about. The immigration. How about inflation? We had no inflation and they had a lot and they said the reverse.”
He added: “It was disinformation, misinformation, which is what they talk about all the time.” – AL JAZEERA
By Dwayne Oxford