Former Trump staffers get prime-time speaking spots — at Democrats' convention
CBC
American politics is awash right now in talk of surprise political endorsements. One in particular: reports suggest Robert F. Kennedy may abandon his presidential bid later this week and endorse Donald Trump.
Pundits are buzzing about whether the move might, or might not, give Trump a boost in a U.S. race expected to be a photo finish.
Amid that breaking news, a slower-rolling wave of endorsements has built up for months and finally crested at the Democratic convention.
It involves the slew of officials who worked for Trump now refusing to back his re-election bid, several of whom have endorsed Biden.
Trump isn't backed by his former vice-president; his second and third national-security advisers; several White House press officials; a chief of staff; and half his previous cabinet.
Now two officials from the Trump White House have spoken at the Democratic convention in Chicago to plead with Americans not to elect their former boss.
They included Trump's press secretary and a national-security official. That's atop other Republicans who addressed the convention.
"Being inside Trump's White House was terrifying," said Olivia Troye, a former counterterrorism adviser to then-vice-president Mike Pence.
"But what keeps me up at night is what will happen if he gets back there.… The guardrails are gone. The few adults in the room the first time resigned — or were fired."
She said Trump will undermine this next election, just like he did the last one, and she said American adversaries around the world are relishing this.
Addressing those members of her party watching from home, Troye said: "You aren't betraying our party. You're standing up for our country."
The crowd chanted, "U-S-A," as she spoke Wednesday.
A day earlier, Trump's White House press secretary declared she'd be voting for Kamala Harris. Stephanie Grisham said she wasn't just a Trump supporter: "I was a true believer," she said, who spent her Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Her breaking point, she said, came with the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; that's when a mob of Trump supporters tried stopping certification of the previous election.
