Stephanie Grisham, first lady's top aide, former WH press secretary, resigns amid Capitol chaos
Two weeks before she was set to be out of a job, Stephanie Grisham, First Lady Melania Trump's chief of staff and a former press secretary to the president, resigned Wednesday in the wake of the violent storming of the Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump rioters.
Grisham, who served either President Donald Trump or Melania Trump since the president launched his campaign in 2015, issued a statement saying she was proud of the administration's "many accomplishments."
“It has been an honor to serve the country in the White House," she said in her statement posted on Twitter. "I am very proud to have been a part of Mrs. Trump’s mission to help children everywhere, and proud of the many accomplishments of this administration."
It was not clear whether any other staffers in the Trump White House had resigned over the chaos that erupted when a crowd of thousands of pro-Trump extremists stormed the Capitol building, producing unprecedented scenes of brawling in the hallowed halls and at least one shooting death.
At the time, the House and the Senate were in the midst of officially counting the Electoral College votes, as some pro-Trump Republicans challenged the results in a futile effort to reverse the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost and Democrat Joe Biden won.
After the rioters were cleared from the building and it was made secure, senators and representatives reconvened Wednesday evening to resume the counting.
So far, Melania Trump has not commented publicly on either the Capitol riot or Grisham's resignation. She condemned violent protests in June in the wake of national protest demonstrations following the death of George Floyd.
"Saddened to see our country & communities being damaged & vandalized. I ask everyone to protest in peace & focus on taking care of one another & healing our great nation," she wrote on her official Twitter account at the time.
After the 2016 election, Grisham worked as Melania Trump's press secretary, then moved to the West Wing as the president's press secretary, a brief tenure during which she didn't once brief the White House press corps.
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In April, the first lady announced that Grisham would be returning to the East Wing as her chief-of-staff.
Grisham's job was to be the only spokeswoman for a first lady who did only one mainstream TV interview in four years and loathed most of the media as much as her husband.
She defended the first lady when she wore a jacket with a snarky "I really don't care" message on a humanitarian mission. She issued sharp statements for her when Trump felt son Barron, 14, had been maligned in some way. She condemned a revenge book by the first lady's former close friend, calling it "wildly self-aggrandizing." And she regularly attacked on Twitter any media story she considered inaccurate, especially by CNN.
As chief of staff, she was responsible for running interference between the East Wing and reporters, and for promoting Melania Trump's largely unfocused Be Best initiative to improve the lives of children.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump's top aide, quits amid Capitol riot