Kayleigh McEnany on dealing with a hostile press corps, reports of another night of violence in Chicago
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany joins Sean Hannity with insight on 'Hannity.'
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany took the high road Tuesday night after some social media users claimed they heard Al Jazeera reporter Kimberly Halkett allegedly call her a “lying b---h" in a widely circulated clip from her press briefing.
In an interview on "Hannity," McEnany addressed the speculation over Halkett's comment after the reporter publicly denied using the crude remark during a tense exchange at the White House.
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"I polled my staff and my staff was 50/50," McEnany said, explaining that her staff was split over whether Halkett was responsible for the comment.
"But," McEnany went on, "unlike what the media does to me, does to this president, does to anyone at the Trump administration, which is to not give us the benefit of the doubt but actively take this out of context, chop up our words in a way that's politically convenient to them, that distorts the entirety of the message, unlike the dishonest brokers that I've seen in the media, I won't do that to a reporter who showed animosity, who was cruel, who was rude, who wasn't seeking answers for the American people."
Halkett was in the midst of grilling McEnany about the integrity of mail-in ballots when the press secretary looked to move on. Halkett, who was wearing a cloth mask, uttered something as McEnany called on the next reporter.
The video quickly went viral, with people on both sides of the aisle chiming in over whether Halkett used the vulgar phrase.
Halkett later addressed the issue on Twitter, writing “Thanks for asking @charliespiering ... there's a lot of misreporting out there about that briefing. The answer to your question is, I DID NOT. What I said was, ‘OKAY, YOU DON'T WANT TO ENGAGE,’” she said.
"I'll say this," McEnany responded, "I'll give her the benefit of the doubt if she said she didn't say that, something that has never been given to this president as they actively take him out of context. It’s egregious and the American people deserve better."
McEnany also fired back at Playboy Magazine reporter Brian Karem after he yelled "Hey Kayleigh, wear a mask!" as she left the podium at Tuesday's press briefing.
Karem's comment was just the latest in a long line of media scrutiny surrounding the Trump administration's approach to masks during the coronavirus pandemic. While the administration has told Americans to wear masks if needed, McEnany and other White House officials have encountered criticism for not wearing them at public events.
"On March 31st, this president was asked about masks. On March 31 He said 'if you want to wear a face in covering, wear one. It does no harm. By all means, wear one,'" McEnany said. "Three days later the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] came out with guidelines instead of opposing face coverings and mask, they said it's recommended but not required," she explained.
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"The president was ahead of the game but guess who was behind the game? The White House press corps," she went on. "A full month later when I did my first briefing, this is after the CDC recommendation, I looked around the room, no one was wearing masks. So it's very interesting to see the politically convenient White House press corps saying the president was against masks when that was never the case, always has been open to it, but it was the White House press corps that ignored the CDCs recommendation an entire month after it was issued."
Fox News' Sam Dorman and Brian Flood contributed to this report.