Trump’s press secretary vows no lying
Role’s fourth occupant conducts first briefing
WASHINGTON — Kayleigh Mcenany, President Donald Trump’s fourth press secretary, told the White House press corps, “I will never lie to you. You have my word on that,” during her first briefing Friday.
The last briefing to be conducted by a White House press secretary occurred on March 11, 2019, when Trump’s second press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, held the position.
Stephanie Grisham, who served between Mcenany and Sanders, never gave a daily briefing in the press office.
Mcenany came into public view during the 2016 presidential campaign, when she worked as a CNN contributor and Trump surrogate.
She is a Harvard Law graduate who got a degree in international politics at Georgetown University and studied at Oxford University.
After half an hour, Mcenany told the room that she would cut short the briefing so that she could see her 5-month-old daughter.
Trump’s first press secretary,
Sean Spicer, who resigned after six months on the job, tweeted that Mcenany had a “great debut.”
“I can’t believe Trump just got fired as press secretary,” quipped Josh Marshall of the left-leaning Talking Points Memo, in a reference to the president’s unorthodox decision to conduct briefings himself rather than limit his presence to news conferences.
But as TV ratings for the briefings and Trump’s own approval ratings slumped, the White House began to pull back on daily coronavirus task force briefings featuring the president.
Mcenany takes the podium as major news organizations have debated whether to participate in or even air the daily briefings in a much emptier room. Social distancing rules worked out with the White House Correspondents Association ban reporters from standing in the aisles and set a rotation schedule to use 14 out of 49 seats.
Before joining the administration, Mcenany served as national press secretary for the Trump campaign.
“We sort of went through the wars together at CNN,” former CNN contributor and 2016 Trump surrogate Jeffrey Lord told the Review-journal. “That was fabulous preparation for this job.”
Lord, who worked in the Reagan White House, added, “These are jobs that you grow into,” as he praised Mcenany’s style and substance.
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @Debrajsaunders on Twitter.