Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany promises not to lie as White House resumes daily briefings

Her words reflect a difficult relationship between the president’s team and the media, who have complained that the absence of daily briefings made it difficult to probe policy. Whether the briefings continue may depend on how McEnany, who joined the White House from the Trump campaign last month, is treated by reporters.

The James Brady Briefing Room had been largely idle for a year until it exploded back into life in March with regular updates on the administration’s coronavirus response, delivered by the president himself. But those Trump-led briefings ended last week, and McEnany’s session with the press marked a return to the long-standing briefing format of the press secretary fielding questions from reporters.

McEnany said the plan was to hold regular briefings. “We do plan to continue these,” she said.

She opened with an announcement of $12 billion in relief funding for hospitals hit hardest by the coronavirus crisis, before echoing Trump’s anger at China, defending Jared Kushner’s role in the pandemic response, and railing against the treatment of Michael Flynn in her 31-minute appearance.

Jason Miller, a former Trump campaign communications director, said McEnany avoided taking the bait on leading questions and came across as likable. Most importantly, she did not get out ahead of the president.

“A lot of spokespeople want to speak in absolute terms, whereas the world is a shifting place, and you want to give the president the maximum amount of flexibility by answering as accurately and truthfully as possible given the facts available to you, but without boxing him in,” he said.

McEnany said the president and members of his coronavirus task force would continue to deliver information — she pointed out that Trump took questions twice on Thursday — supplemented by briefings.

“I am consistently with him, absorbing his thinking, and it’s my mission to bring you the mindset of the president and deliver those facts,” she said.

On Friday, she showed the steel that Trump is said to want in his press secretary, sticking to the White House playbook, sparring with reporters, and delivering a robust response when needed.

When asked about Joe Biden’s interview regarding Tara Reade’s claim of sexual assault, she said: “We are pleased that Joe Biden decided to go on the record.”

But she was ready when a follow-up asked about misconduct allegations made against Trump, accusing the media of digging up old news.

“The president has swiftly denied all of these allegations that were raised four years ago,” she said before adding the questions were “asked and answered in the form of the vote of the American people” in 2016.

She deflected a gotcha question about whether the president’s son-in-law was tone-deaf in talking about a “great success story” after 60,000 people had died from COVID-19.

“Jared Kushner has, first of all, done a great job for this administration,” she said. “When he talked about a success story, he was talking about the story of this administration.”

And she even managed to shoehorn in a segment on Flynn when asked about the incarceration of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney.

“I am glad that you brought up justice,” she said before describing Flynn as an “honorable man who served his country,” and detailing what she said was his unfair pursuit by the FBI revealed by the recent unsealing of court documents.

The performance won immediate praise from Sarah Sanders, who was the last press secretary to take the briefing room podium in March last year.

“Proud of my friend Kayleigh for doing a great job in her first briefing,” she tweeted. “It’s one of the toughest but most rewarding parts of the job and she handled it with confidence and grace.”