It’s been a while since we’ve had a regular White House press briefing. At today’s, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany made her debut:
And here begins the first briefing by a White House @PressSec since March 2019. pic.twitter.com/IsGFxFFfZe
— jonkarl (@jonkarl) May 1, 2020
And it quickly went to eleven:
The new White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany is holding the first traditional WH briefing in more than 400 days. She says "I will never lie to you. You have my word on that." pic.twitter.com/pbVf49mfwV
— COVID Perspective (@covidperspectiv) May 1, 2020
Reporter: "Will you pledge never to lie to us from that podium?"
.@PressSec @KayleighMcEnany: "I will never lie to you." pic.twitter.com/qQsyPsNsiA
— The Hill (@thehill) May 1, 2020
Welp.
I honestly don't know but… is it normal for a reporter to ask the @PressSec to pledge never to lie to them from the podium as he just did?
Because that seems *very* insulting.
— Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) May 1, 2020
Who asked that?
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 1, 2020
That honor apparently goes to the AP’s Jill Colvin:
Associated Press Jill Colvin to new White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany: "Will you pledge to never lie to us?"
All new press secretaries dating back to Ron Ziegler have been asked this kind of question on their first day (Narrator: They haven't).
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) May 1, 2020
We definitely don’t recall any of Barack Obama’s press secretaries getting baptized by the White House press corps with a question like that.
Very insulting.
— Anita Bishop (@danlilr) May 1, 2020
Who the hell do these reporters think they are? https://t.co/u8ds7ls9nH
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) May 1, 2020
They think they’re stunning and brave firefighters.
Will McEnany lie at some point? Do White House press secretaries lie? We’d be lying to you if we said we genuinely believe that White House press secretaries are 100% honest all the time about everything and don’t try to spin on behalf of their bosses. But it’s definitely notable that, despite, say, the myriad of well documented lies by Barack Obama’s press secretaries, the White House press corps didn’t seem concerned about misinformation until now.
Wish she had responded by asking the press to make the same promise.
— Mark ??? (@hawki_mark) May 1, 2020
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