Latest White House press secretary pledges to be truthful at podium
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s new spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, vowed Friday not to lie to reporters from the podium as she made her debut at the first White House briefing by a press secretary in more than a year.
“I will never lie to you,” McEnany told reporters. “You have my word on that.”
McEnany, who joined the White House last month, took the stage behind a podium that had quite literally been collecting cobwebs before the president began the practice of holding his own daily briefings because of the coronavirus.
McEnany said she spends most of the day with the president and is “constantly with him, absorbing his thinking.” She said she sees it as her “mission to bring you the mindset of the president, deliver those facts, so this president gets fair and accurate reporting and the American people get fair and accurate information.“
During past administrations, a formal briefing by a White House press secretary would hardly be news, but it was the first such briefing since March 11, 2019, when Sarah Sanders took to the podium for the first time in more than a month.
Sanders left her post that summer, and her successor, Stephanie Grisham, never held a briefing during her entire nine-month tenure.
The White House has long made the case that the briefings are less important in the Trump administration because the president is so accessible, answering reporters’ questions on an often-daily basis. Trump had been holding his own daily briefings through much of the pandemic but has scaled back amid concerns that he was doing himself political damage and as the White House tries to pivot toward a focus on reopening.
Trump’s first press secretary, Sean Spicer, got off to a contentious early start with reporters when he used his initial press briefing to falsely claim that Trump’s inauguration had drawn the biggest crowd ever. Sanders’ briefings were also heated, and she drew criticism for her own false statements.
McEnany took a more genial approach at her debut, calling on every reporter in the room at least once and avoiding personal attacks.
Trump and his new chief of staff, Mark Meadows, shook up the White House communications team in early April, at the height of the coronavirus crisis. Grisham, who had held the titles of both press secretary and White House communications director, rejoined the first lady’s office in a new role as Melania Trump’s chief of staff.