Trump's new press secretary pledges never to lie from podium

President Donald Trump's new spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, vowed on Friday never 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 for 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 prior to the president commenced the practice of holding his own daily briefings as a result of the coronavirus.

McEnany said she spends most of your 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, which means this president gets fair and accurate reporting and the American persons get fair and accurate information."

During past administrations, a formal briefing by a White House press secretary would hardly be news. Nonetheless it was the first such briefing since March 11, 2019, when Sarah Sanders took to the podium for the very first time in more than a month and was pressed on comments Trump reportedly made at a fundraiser claiming that Democrats hated Jewish people. Sanders left her post that summer, and her successor, Stephanie Grisham, never held a briefing during her entire nine-month tenure.

The briefings were must-see TV through the start of the Trump administration, when viewers would listen in to see Trump's first press secretary, Sean Spicer, spar with the press. However the media-obsessed Trump, who sees himself as his best spokesman, communications director and strategist, deducted this past year that the spectacle had diminishing returns, people near him said at that time.

The White House has long made the case that the briefings are less important in the Trump administration as the president is indeed accessible, answering reporters' questions on an often-daily basis. Trump had been holding his own daily briefings through a lot of the pandemic, but scaled back this week amid concerns that he was doing himself political damage and as the White House tries to pivot toward a concentrate on reopening.

Spicer got off to a contentious early start with reporters when he used his first press briefing to falsely declare that Trump's inauguration had drawn the largest crowd ever. Sanders' briefings were also heated, and she drew criticism on her behalf own false statements, despite once telling reporters, “I don’t think it’s appropriate to lie from the podium or any other place."

McEnany took a far more genial approach at her debut, contacting every reporter in the area at least one time and avoiding personal attacks. She grew more heated, though, as she raised newly released documents linked to former national security adviser Michael Flynn that she said should “scare every American citizen."

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI when questioned about his interactions with the Russian ambassador to the United States. The brand new documents reveal that the FBI have been ready to drop its investigation into Flynn weeks before the interview because of too little evidence. And it included emails and handwritten notes, including the one which read: “What’s our goal? Truth/admission or even to get him to lie, so we are able to prosecute him or get him fired?”

McEnany also deflected questions about the numerous sexual misconduct allegations leveled at Trump over time after his likely Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, on Friday emphatically denied allegations from a former Senate staffer that he sexually assaulted her in the first 1990s, declaring flatly “this never happened.”

“The president has swiftly denied all of these allegations which were raised four years back," McEnany said. “He has always told the reality on these issues. He's denied them immediately. Asked and answered in the form of the vote of the American people.”

After McEnany's briefing ended, Spicer tweeted: “Great debut.” Ari Fleischer, press secretary for President George W. Bush, said substance and style are the key factors in being truly a presidential spokesperson.

“It matters how you find on TV,” Fleischer said on Fox News Channel following the briefing. “On the substance, she had facts. She had statistics. Oh boy, is she articulate.

“On the style, I mean she was just comfortable. You always listen for: Will there be a hiccup in the voice? Is she nervous? Will there be something about being for the reason that room where you imagine the pressure could easily get to her? She was cool and calm throughout it all.”

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 fresh role as Melania Trump’s chief of staff.

Grisham, who succeeded Sanders and Spicer, was arguably the nation’s least noticeable press secretary in modern history. While she made occasional appearances on the Fox News Channel, she preferred to tape her interviews in a studio in order to avoid having to talk with reporters who gather on the White House driveway to interview officials after they appear on TV via cameras set up outside the executive mansion.