WASHINGTON (TN) — Republicans who oppose a second Donald Trump presidency will receive several prime-time speaking slots on the second night of the Democratic National Convention in an effort to persuade dissatisfied GOP voters to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming election.
A handful of Republican speakers spoke at the convention Tuesday night, including former Trump voters, Republican political activists and a former Trump White House aide, Stephanie Grisham. Other anti-Trump Republican voices will speak later this week: former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who sat on the House committee on Jan. 6, and former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan, who already supports Harris.
Democrats have tried to capitalize on anti-Trump sentiment within the Republican Party since President Joe Biden was still a candidate, hoping to convert voters in Nikki Haley’s primary into Biden supporters. They used a similar strategy in the 2020 election, when former Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich gave a recorded speech at that year’s convention.
Grisham sharply criticized Trump’s character and said he makes fun of his supporters in private.
“Behind closed doors, Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them basement dwellers,” she said. “He has no compassion, no morals and no loyalty to the truth.”
She resigned in the wake of the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, after Trump delivered a speech at the Ellipse that some say incited an angry mob and drove them into the building where lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence were working to certify Biden’s 2020 election victory.
“Here I am standing behind a podium, rooting for a Democrat, because I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris is telling the truth. She respects the American people and she has my vote,” she said.
Republican strategist Ana Navarro, a vocal Trump critic, also spoke Tuesday night, comparing Trump to the communist dictators of her native Nicaragua. Trump and other Republicans claimed Harris’ policies would put America on the path to communism and socialism.
“I know communism. I fled communism from Nicaragua when I was eight years old. I don’t take this lightly, and let me tell you what communist dictators do, and it’s never just for one day,” she said, referring to Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric in the past.
The Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona, said the Republican Party has developed into a cult around Donald Trump in which he, as a “lifelong Republican,” no longer feels welcome.
“Trump has no idea about public service,” said John Giles. “Like a child, he acts purely out of self-interest. We all need an adult in the White House and we have seen what happens when we don’t have one.”
