Stephanie Grisham, who took up the mantle of White House press secretary after Sarah Sanders resigned last year, is now returning to work for the First Lady again as her Chief of Staff:
CNN – White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is leaving the job without ever having briefed the press. CNN has learned she is returning to the East Wing as first lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff as President Donald Trump’s new chief of staff Mark Meadows shakes up the communications team in the West Wing.
Meadows is currently considering several candidates for the press secretary job, including Trump campaign spokesman Kayleigh McEnany. The new chief of staff is also considering hiring Alyssa Farah, the current spokeswoman for the Defense Department, for a communications role, among others, two sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
Farah has held several roles in the Trump administration. After leaving her job as the spokeswoman for the House Freedom Caucus to become Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary, she moved to the Pentagon last August. But this would be her first position in the West Wing. Farah has remained close with Meadows since her days at the Freedom Caucus.
Grisham, who still speaks with first lady Melania Trump on a daily basis, is returning to where she has spent the majority of her time in the administration, the East Wing.
Grisham did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.
CNN seems to be the main source reporting this, as everyone else reporting it links it back to CNN.
I should mention that last week Axios reported that Meadows was looking to replace Grisham with Farah (on the left in photo).
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has privately discussed bringing on Pentagon spokesperson Alyssa Farah or Trump campaign spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany as a new White House press secretary, two sources familiar with the talks tell Axios.https://t.co/0VMHLj9yCh
— Axios (@axios) April 4, 2020
Grisham responded to the report like this:
“Sounds like more palace intrigue to me, but I’ve also been in quarantine. If true, how ironic that the press secretary would hear about being replaced in the press.”
It sounds like Grisham had no idea that she was being replaced. If this wasn’t of her choosing, that may be why she refused to comment to CNN on the news.
UPDATE: I see Fox News now reporting this as well, just in case you weren’t sure if you could trust CNN.