Former Trump backers backing Harris explain why

Three Republicans took the Democratic National Convention stage on its second night to explain why they broke away from the party of Donald Trump, and urged their fellow Republicans to back Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

“I saw him when the cameras were off. Behind closed doors, Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them ‘basement dwellers,'” said former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.

“He has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth. He used to tell me, ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie. Say it enough, and people will believe you,'” Grisham recalled.

Describing herself as a “true believer” in Trump’s MAGA movement, and one of the former president’s “closest advisors,” spending holidays with his family at Mar-a-Lago.

After serving as Trump’s press secretary for nine months, Grisham was named First Lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff. She resigned from that post on Jan. 6, 2021, in response to the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“Now here I am, behind a podium, advocating for a Democrat, and that’s because I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people, and she has my vote.”

“When I was press secretary, I got skewered for never holding a White House briefing. It’s because unlike my boss, I never wanted to stand at that podium and lie,” she said.

In response to Grisham’s speech, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung pointed to a post on X by Jason Miller, a senior Trump advisor.

“Grisham botched that speech,” Miller wrote.

Grisham followed another former Trump supporter on stage, Kyle Sweetser, along with a video compilation of interviews with former Trump voters who now plan to cast their ballots for Harris.

“I voted for Trump not once, not twice, but three times,” Sweetser said.

Sweetser said he works in construction and was drawn to Trump’s promise to “look out for blue collar workers.”

“But then I started to see Trump’s tariff policy in action. Costs for construction workers like me were starting to soar. I realized Trump wasn’t for me. He was for lining his own pockets,” he said.

“Now I’m not left-wing, period. But I believe our leaders should bring out the best in us, not the worst. That’s why I’m voting for Kamala Harris,” Sweetser said in Chicago.

The mayor of Mesa, Arizona, John Giles, also spoke Tuesday night. Giles, a self-described “life-long Republican,” made headlines in July when he broke with his party and endorsed Harris.

“I have an urgent message for the majority of Americans who, like me, are in the political middle,” he said. “John McCain’s Republican Party is gone, and we don’t owe a damn thing to what’s been left behind. So let’s turn the page. Let’s put country first.”