Tag Archives: aide

Longtime Trump aide Stephanie Grisham will succeed Sanders as press secretary

Stephanie Grisham, spokesperson for first lady Melania Trump, arrives for a campaign rally with U.S. President Donald Trump in Orlando, Florida, U.S., June 18, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Stephanie Grisham, the communications director for first lady Melania Trump and a longtime aide to President Donald Trump, will succeed Sarah Sanders as White House press secretary, Mrs. Trump announced on Tuesday.

Melania Trump announced the development in a tweet to close out the president’s search for a press secretary after Sanders decided to resign and go back home to Arkansas earlier this month.

Grisham, 42, a fixture in the Arizona Republican Party, was one of Trump’s first hires for his presidential campaign – as a press aide in 2015. She served as a deputy press secretary in the White House when he took office in January 2017 and eventually moved over to the first lady’s operation.

A clue that the president was leaning toward Grisham for the job was when aides said she had now been added to the White House team going with Trump to the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, this week.

The fact that Mrs. Trump announced the appointment, instead of the president himself, showed that the first lady was willing to part with Grisham for the greater good.

Grisham will have the dual role of press secretary and communications director. Sanders had essentially been doing both roles as well, without the communications director title.

Melania Trump’s tweet said: “I am pleased to announce @StephGrisham45 will be the next @PressSec & Comms Director! She has been with us since 2015 – @potus & I can think of no better person to serve the Administration & our country. Excited to have Stephanie working for both sides of the @WhiteHouse. #BeBest”

Grisham was viewed internally as the candidate with the best rapport with President Trump, a key requirement.

With his tweets and multiple exchanges with reporters, Trump is in many ways his own press secretary and communications director, and Sanders’ role grew to being a senior adviser.

Whether Grisham would bring back the daily press briefing was unclear. Trump has all but ended the practice and it has been more than three months since the last one.

The other top candidate had been Sanders’ principal deputy press secretary, Hogan Gidley.

Tony Sayegh, a former Treasury Department spokesman, had been considered as well but was in the midst of a move home to New York. Former State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert withdrew herself from consideration.

Gidley tweeted his congratulations to Grisham.

“Amazing announcement! So proud and blessed to have my good friend @StephGrisham45 working with our team. She is a rockstar and perfect to fill Sarah’s shoes!” he said.

Sanders is contemplating a political future in Arkansas, considering a 2022 run for state governor, a position once held by her father, Republican Mike Huckabee.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Senate negotiators zero in on Zika virus funding

An anti Zika virus kit, including a bug net, mosquito repellent, condoms, literature and anti mosquito dunks,

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate negotiators on Wednesday tried to reach a deal to provide more than $1 billion to battle the Zika virus that is feared will creep north into the United States with the onset of warmer weather, which breeds mosquitoes that could carry the disease.

Senior Senate Democratic aides said details were still being worked out, but votes could come by next week on whether to approve the new money.

In February, President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion in emergency funds, but Republicans balked, with some arguing that $1.1 billion is more in line with what is needed. Many Republicans also want any Zika funds to be offset with spending cuts elsewhere.

These are among the details that still have to be worked out, according to aides.

Republican Senator Roy Blunt from Missouri and Democratic Senator Patty Murray from Washington, the two senior senators on an appropriations panel that oversees healthcare spending, have been trying to hammer out a deal.

An aide to Murray said in a statement: “Senator Murray is having conversations with Chairman Blunt and others about the path forward on emergency funding to respond to Zika.”

The aide said Murray still supports Obama’s $1.9 billion request.

Amid congressional inaction, the Obama administration shifted $589 million to help federal agencies prepare for Zika. Most of that money came from a fund to fight the Ebola virus and will have to be replenished, according to officials.

Senator Marco Rubio, however, is one Republican pushing for both immediate, emergency funding and longer-term money to be made available starting on Oct. 1 to battle the disease that can cause severe brain deformities in babies born of infected mothers and other illnesses.

“This is going to be an ongoing issue beyond this year,” Rubio said, adding, “We need to jump on it now.”

There are fears that Rubio’s home state of Florida could be the first place in the continental United States to get hit hard by Zika because of its tropical climate.

“For the first time, I’ve seen high-level conversations about a way forward here in the Senate and that’s a positive development,” Rubio said in a brief hallway interview with Reuters.

Republicans in the House of Representatives are still deeply divided over new funding for Zika, according to two senior aides.

(Reporting By Richard Cowan; Editing by Bernard Orr)