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Several prominent Republicans and onetime Trumpworld figures came out in force at the Democratic National Convention in support of Kamala Harris – urging their own party members to vote for a Democrat rather than second Donald Trump back to the White House for a second term.
Notable Republican figures, some who had worked in Trump’s White House when he was president, used their platform at the DNC to speak directly to conservative voters at home, appealing to them to vote for Harris in November.
By contrast, no prominent Democrats spoke at the Republican National Convention in Miluwakee back in July.
Speaking on the second day of the DNC, Trump’s former press secretary Stephanie Grisham unleashed a fiery attack on Trump and the former first lady Melania Trump, when she revealed what happened on the day she quit: January 6 2021.
“On January 6, I asked Melania… I asked if we could at least tweet that while peaceful protest is the right of every American, there’s no place for lawlessness or violence,” Grisham said.
“She replied with one word - ‘no’. I became the first senior staffer to resign that day. I couldn’t be part of the insanity any longer.”
Acknowledging how as press secretary she never held any White House briefings, Grisham said it was because “unlike my boss, I never wanted to stand at the podium and lie.”
Advocating for Harris, she said: “Kamala Harris tells the truth, she respects the American people and she has my vote.”
Grisham also claimed Trump calls his loyal supporters “basement dwellers” behind closed doors.
Whene former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan took to the stage, he sent the crowd wild by telling Republican viewers at home: “If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 you’re not a Democrat – you’re a patriot.”
Duncan accused Trump of being “a direct threat to democracy” and described the Republican party as “a cult worshiping a felonist thug.”
Delivering another blow to Trump was former Illinois Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger, who said in his speech: “Donald Trump has suffocated the soul of the Republican Party.”
He added: “The Republican Party is no longer conservative. It has switched its allegiance from the principles that gave it purpose to a man whose only purpose is himself.
“Donald Trump is a weak man pretending to be strong. He is a small man pretending to be big. He’s a faithless man pretending to be righteous. He’s a perpetrator who can’t stop playing the victim.”
Olivia Troye, a “lifelong Republican” and former advisor to ex-vice president Mike Pence, described Trump’s White House as “terrifying.”
She told the convention hall: “What keeps me up at night is what’ll happen if he gets back in [the White House]. The guard rails are gone, the few adults in the room the first time resigned or were fired.”
Troye added that Trump “pretends to care about Conservative, Catholic, Texan” values.
By contrast, voting for Harris would be “protecting our freedom,” she said, adding that she is “proud to support Kamala Harris.”
“So to my fellow Republicans, you aren’t voting for a Democrat - you’re voting for democracy. You aren’t betraying our party, you’re standing up for our country,” she added.
Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen was also at the convention but not invited to speak. Cohen testified against the former president in his hush money trial which saw Trump convicted on 34 charges of falsifying business records.
The Republican Mayor of Mesa, Arizona, John Giles, also appeared at the convention and said: “Trump made a lot of lofty promises, unlimited economic growth, American manufacturing reborn, a secure border. Turns out Donald Trump was all talk. He wanted our votes, but he couldn’t deliver a thing.”
The prominent conservatives appeared at the DNC after the Harris campaign launched “Republicans for Harris”.
The initiative is “a grassroots organizing program to further outreach efforts to the millions of Republican voters who continue to reject the chaos, division, and violence of Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda,” the Harris campaign said in a statement.
