White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany accused reporters of not wanting houses of worship to reopen during a tense moment at Friday’s briefing.
At the start of the briefing, President Trump announced his intention to label all houses of worship as essential businesses. The press secretary faced a litany of questions about the safety of such an action after he left the briefing room.
“The president has been very clear he wants to see churches reopen in accordance with his guidelines,” she answered. “The president would like churches to reopen and do it in accordance with the guidelines.
“The president will strongly encourage every governor to allow their churches to reopen, and boy, it’s interesting to be in a room that desperately wants to seem to see these churches and houses of worship stay closed,” McEnany added a moment later, after being asked how the president would override a governor’s orders.
Jeff Mason, a reporter for Reuters, then interjected to rebuke her comment.
“Kayleigh, I object to that. I mean, I go to church. I’m dying to go back to church,” he said. “The question that we’re asking you and would like to have asked the president and Dr. Birx is, ‘Is it safe, and if it’s not safe, is the president trying to encourage that, or does the president agree with Dr. Birx that people should wait?'”
She responded, “Jeff, it is safe to reopen your churches if you do so in accordance with the guidelines.”
In the briefing, Trump demanded that governors update their social distancing protocols to include the opening of houses of worship by this weekend, adding that if states don’t do so, he’d override their authority through executive action to allow the public to attend worship services. It would take litigation to do so, however.
