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Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany; May 1, 2020
I clicked on C-Span about halfway through this affair. I lasted less than two minutes. When she referred to the "Democrat party," I turned it off.
Everything is great, and the ratings are through the roof.
PRESS BRIEFINGS
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany
Issued on: May 1, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
2:11 P.M. EDT
MS. MCENANY: So, good afternoon. I have an announcement for you on hospital funding as appropriated in the third phase of coronavirus relief.
{snip}
And with that, I’ll take questions. John.
Q Kayleigh, if I could, welcome to the podium for the first time, as well.
MS. MCENANY: Thank you.
Q The markets are down super substantially today after the President yesterday suggested in the East Room that he might use tariffs to punish China over the coronavirus. Is there any serious consideration being given to putting new tariffs on China, or was the President just spit balling yesterday?
MS. MCENANY: Look, I won’t get ahead of any announcements from the President, but I will echo the President’s displeasure with China. It’s no secret that China mishandled this situation.
Just a few examples for you: They did not share the genetic sequence until a professor in Shanghai did so on his own. The very next day, China shut down his lab for, quote, “rectification.” They slow-walked information on human-to-human transmission alongside the World Health Organization and didn’t let U.S. investigators in at a very important time.
So we take displeasure with China’s actions, but I certainly won’t get ahead of the President with those announcements.
Q Is the President seriously considering forcing China to pay some sort of compensation reparations — whatever word you want to put on it?
MS. MCENANY: Again, when it comes to retaliatory measures, I will not get ahead of the President on that.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh, and welcome to the podium, as well.
MS. MCENANY: Thank you.
Q The President said yesterday that he has a high degree of confidence that the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, and yet his own intelligence agencies say they’re still investigating. So does the President have information? And has he drawn a conclusion that the intelligence community has not yet?
MS. MCENANY: Look, the President’s statement is consistent with the other intelligence assessments. While we continue to have very limited and dubious data from China, current assessments indicated that President Trump’s statement is consistent with what some analysts believe is the epicenter of where the virus began.
And I would note that intelligence statement you’re referring to really made two points: One, that this virus originated in China. Two, that it began through contact with infected animals or was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan. So I consider that consistent with what the President said: that he’s seen intelligence suggesting it could be in the Wuhan laboratory.
Q But he seemed to lean into the idea that this started in a laboratory, whereas the statement that we saw from the DNI said we’re still investigating those two options that you just laid out. Is the President in any way creating mixed messages by not saying, “We’re still investigating”?
MS. MCENANY: No, you know, let me remind everyone intelligence is just an estimate, essentially, and it’s up to policymakers to decide what to do with that intelligence. This — in this case, the policymaker is the President of the United States, and he’ll make that decision at the right time.
Steve.
Q Is the President any close to deciding what to do about China? Has he received any recommendations on the consequences? Is he anywhere near a decision?
MS. MCENANY: Look, again, I won’t get ahead of the President’s decision or the timing of that decision, but he takes this very seriously because the decisions of China that I referenced — slow-walking some of that information — put American lives at risk. And rest assured this President has one priority, and that is the safety and the wellbeing of American lives.
Q Thanks so much, Kayleigh. Welcome. Since it’s been more than 100 days since a press secretary stood up there, I wanted to get a better sense of what your plan is. Are you planning to do these in a daily basis at this point? And also, will you pledge never to lie to us from that podium?
MS. MCENANY: I will never lie to you. You have my word on that.
As to the timing of the briefings, we do plan to do them. I will announce timing of that forthcoming, but we do plan to continue these.
{snip}
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. The President tweeted this morning about the protests in Michigan. He essentially said that the governor of Michigan should work with the protestors. He called them “very good people” and said that they are very angry. Some of those protests, I’m sure you saw, included, you know, heavily armed protesters, members of militia groups. I wonder if the President was speaking about those specific members who stormed the capitol in Michigan when he talked about “very good people.”
MS. MCENANY: Look, the President was referencing, generally, that in this country you have a First Amendment right to protest. I think that’s something we all treasure here and we should, rightfully. You have a right to do that constitutionally, but you must protest within the bounds of the law. He encourages everyone to protest lawfully and also to engage in our social distancing guidelines, which we think all Americans should engage in.
Q Did he have any response to just the imagery of, you know, people with long guns, essentially, storming the capitol, going into face-offs with police officers and intimidating, in some way, some of the lawmakers?
MS. MCENANY: Again, the President says, you know, that we must protest lawfully and act within the bounds of the law.
Yes.
Q Thank you for being here. When the President says we did a “spectacular job” or when Jared Kushner talks about a “great success story,” some Americans see it as a lack of empathy. What’s — do you understand their reaction?
THE PRESIDENT: Look, you know, Jared Kushner has, first of all, done a great job for this administration. And what I would say to that is that — when he talked about a “success story,” he was talking about the story of this administration, which is a story of mobilization for the American people — the greatest mobilization of American industry since World War Two.
Of course, we grieve for every American life that has been lost, but we want the American people to be confident in the response of this administration. And that is what he was referring to.
{snip}
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. Just following up on Kristen’s question: China is blocking the World Health Organization from coming in and investigating how this started. Shouldn’t external investigators be allowed into Wuhan to determine, one, how the pandemic started, and two, maybe a way that we can expedite finding a cure for this thing?
MS. MCENANY: Look, you know, there’s no secret that China stopped U.S. investigators from coming in. It was of paramount importance that we got into China in an expedited fashion, and that didn’t happen.
With respect to the World Health Organization, they have some questions of their own to answer. The United States, as the President has emphasized, provides about $400 million to $500 million per year to the WHO, compared to China at roughly $40 million a year. But yet, the WHO appears to have a very clear China bias.
I mean, you look at this timeline and it’s really damning for the WHO, when you consider the fact that, on December 31st, you had Taiwanese officials warning about human-to-human transmission. The WHO did not make that public.
On January 9th, the WHO repeated China’s claim that the virus, quote, “does not transmit readily between people.” That was quite apparently false.
On January 14th, the WHO again repeated China’s talking points about no human-to-human transmission. They praised China’s leadership on the 22nd of January.
On the 23rd, they said — and this is incredible — “The pandemic didn’t represent a public health emergency of international concern.”
And even on February 29th, you had the WHO saying that when the coronavirus was spreading around the world, they — they chose to put — excuse me, political correctness first by opposing lifesaving travel restrictions: the travel restrictions this President put in place; the travel restrictions that Dr. Fauci praised as saving lives.
And you have the World Health Organization opposing a measure that saved American lives. That’s unacceptable, especially at a time when the U.S. was providing 400 to 500 million dollars.
{snip}
Q Yes, thank you, Kayleigh. Back to the DNI statement from yesterday. There is a quote that I’d you to give me a response to. It said, “The intelligence community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.” This was from the DNI statement. How do you see this statement? How do you understand this?
And also there was a piece in The New York Times that says senior Trump administration officials have pushed intelligence agencies to hunt for evidence to support the theory that COVID-19 was made in a Wuhan laboratory.
MS. MCENANY: I can assure you that no one is pressing the intelligence community to come to a determination. The intelligence community statement stands. It’s in perfect concert with what the President said. So, you know, I encourage the media to convey the facts to the American people, which is that we’re in line as an administration and we stand by the intelligence community, and that is in complete concert with what the President said yesterday.
Let’s see. Who haven’t I gotten to? Oh, I’ve gotten to almost everyone.
Q It’s easy.
MS. MCENANY: Okay, so we’re in round two. That’s great. Yes.
Q Thank you. Today, former Vice President Joe Biden denied allegations of sexual misconduct against him. Does President Trump take him at his word given that, as the President has said, he has denied allegations against himself?
MS. MCENANY: Well, what I would say is that we are pleased that the former Vice President has decided to go on the record. It took him less than — what? — 16 hours to follow the advice of the President of the United States and come out and publicly address those claims. So, you know, we’re glad to see that he’s on the record on this.
Q Let me just ask you about something the President said moments ago in an interview. He said that Tara Reade is, quote, “far more compelling than anything they had with respect to Brett Kavanaugh.” What did he mean by that? What is “more compelling”?
MS. MCENANY: You know, that’s the President’s assessment, so I would point you back to his words. I think it was a grave miscarriage of justice what happened with Justice Brett Kavanaugh. I — there’s no need for me to bring up some of the salacious, awful, and verifiably false allegations that were made against Justice Kavanaugh. That was an embarrassment for the Democrat Party to have dragged the name of a very respectable man through the mud like that. So I’ll leave it at that.
Q Yes. Kayleigh, as the radio pooler, I’m asking this on behalf of our colleague. There is word the decision to release Michael Cohen from prison to home confinement due to COVID-19 has been reversed. Did the White House directly or indirectly intervene here?
MS. MCENANY: No. So, absolutely not, I would say there.
But I am glad that you brought up justice and — because, look, there’s, again, a case of injustice that is yet to be brought up today. But I certainly would like to bring it up, and that’s the case of General Michael Flynn.
What we’ve all learned from that should scare every American citizen. The fact that you had Jim Comey admitting in December of last year that he violated a protocol by directing agents to confront Flynn — something that he would not, quote, “have gotten away with” under previous administrations. The FBI told Flynn he didn’t need a lawyer when they came to meet with him. McCabe told FBI agents that he didn’t think Flynn was lying, and then all of that information we’ve learned over the last few months and years culminates in the fact that we have a handwritten FBI note that says, quote, “We need to get [Flynn] to lie,” quote, and “get him fired.”
That was — there was an unfar — unfair target on the back of General Michael Flynn. It should concern every American anytime there’s a partisan pursuit of an individual. And that’s certainly — at least those questions are raised with regard to General Michael Flynn, an honorable man who served his country.
Jon.
Q Yeah, Kayleigh, on that: When the President fired Michael Flynn, he said he was doing so because he had lied to the Vice President and he had lied to the FBI. So, given all that you’ve just said, isn’t it — isn’t it still true? Doesn’t the President still believe that Michael Flynn lied to Vice President Pence and lied to the FBI?
MS. MCENANY: Well, first, let me address that. Vice President Pence is on the record about this. He said he’s inclined to believe that Flynn did not intentionally mislead him. And, I guess, I would turn the question on you and just ask: Does it trouble you that the FBI said we got to get Flynn to lie? Doesn’t that trouble you as a journalist and not only that — as an American citizen?
Q Well, it’s certainly something worth reporting.
MS. MCENANY: Absolutely.
Q It’s not my job to say whether or not it’s troubling. But — but the bottom line is the President said, point blank, that Flynn lied to the FBI and to the Vice President. And I’m just asking you a very direct question: Does he still believe that Michael Flynn lied to the FBI and lied to the Vice President?
MS. MCENANY: And again, I’d point you to the Vice President’s statement —
Q I’m asking you about the President.
MS. MCENANY: — that he’s inclined to believe that Flynn did not intentionally mislead him. And I’m asking back that all of you in your coverage endeavor to report what is a very scary story when the FBI is saying, “Let us get someone to lie.” I’ve seen very scant coverage of that. It’s a story worth reporting and a story that I hope the American people, if you haven’t heard it yet, are getting to hear for the very first time.
Q So does the President think he lied still?
MS. MCENANY: Chanel?
Q Thank you, Secretary McEnany. Going back to the South China Sea, we had an issue come up this morning where you had the USS Barry crossing international maritime waters. And then — this in the South China Sea. And Chinese officials are saying that this will be a dead-end endeavor.
Does — has the President spoken with any of the — any side on Chinese, as far as what the United States is going to continue doing? Is the U.S. Navy going to just ignore these threats and keep going through these international waters? What are your responses to China’s increasing aggression in the South China Sea again?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, I have no news report as to the President’s conversations. And for the specifics of that, I would redirect you to the NSC. Yes.
{snip}
Q Can I just come back, Kayleigh, to Jon’s question? Because Kellyanne Conway spoke to this the other day and suggested that two things could be true at the same time. We now have the Vice President saying it’s his belief that General Flynn may have unintentionally misled him. That’s now three years after the fact. But the two things that could have been true at the same time were that Flynn lied to the Vice President and also lied to the FBI. If you remove the FBI piece of that, would the President still have fired Michael Flynn for his belief that he had lied, at that point, to the Vice President?
MS. MCENANY: I mean, I’m not going to engage in a hypothetical, and that’s essentially what that would be. But what I would say is — echo yet again that this was a grave miscarriage of justice. I am very glad that the FBI thought to keep a paper trail, because what many have said for a very long time, pointing to the first few facts I shared with you, culminating in that handwritten note, I’m glad they kept such good documentation of their intent to slow-walk General Flynn into a trap and to essentially create, as I mentioned, a grave miscarriage of justice.
So, FBI, at least we can thank you for the great notetaking.
Q Let me follow up on that, though. John does bring up the point that General Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
MS. MCENANY: I’m not going to get involved in what was a matter of —
Q Well, how is that a miscarriage of justice, though, in a sense?
MS. MCENANY: Do you not consider it a miscarriage of justice when you have the FBI writing, “We want to get someone to lie”? Is that a miscarriage of justice?
Q But in the end, he pleaded guilty. That’s —
MS. MCENANY: You hesitated because you know what the answer is. The answer is yes.
Q That’s up to a lot of other people to decide.
MS. MCENANY: And I would encourage the media to cover it, because I’ve watched a lot of your networks, I’ve read a lot of your papers. I’ve seen a whole lot of scant information about Michael Flynn, when there was a whole lot of speculation about “Russia, Russia, Russia” culminating in $40 million of taxpayer money being lost and the complete and total exoneration of President Trump.
Thank you guys so much. I’m going to cut this short now and go see my little five-month-old here in a few hours.
Let me just say this: The President at 5:00 p.m. leaves today for Camp David. It’s going to be a working weekend. He’ll be talking with heads of states, with elected officials. We have a great event coming up this afternoon.
And, of course, everyone should watch the Fox News Town Hall with the President from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. It’ll be a can’t-miss television, much like the highly rated President Trump Coronavirus Task Force briefings have been.
Thank you.
END
2:43 P.M. EDT
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany
Issued on: May 1, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
2:11 P.M. EDT
MS. MCENANY: So, good afternoon. I have an announcement for you on hospital funding as appropriated in the third phase of coronavirus relief.
{snip}
And with that, I’ll take questions. John.
Q Kayleigh, if I could, welcome to the podium for the first time, as well.
MS. MCENANY: Thank you.
Q The markets are down super substantially today after the President yesterday suggested in the East Room that he might use tariffs to punish China over the coronavirus. Is there any serious consideration being given to putting new tariffs on China, or was the President just spit balling yesterday?
MS. MCENANY: Look, I won’t get ahead of any announcements from the President, but I will echo the President’s displeasure with China. It’s no secret that China mishandled this situation.
Just a few examples for you: They did not share the genetic sequence until a professor in Shanghai did so on his own. The very next day, China shut down his lab for, quote, “rectification.” They slow-walked information on human-to-human transmission alongside the World Health Organization and didn’t let U.S. investigators in at a very important time.
So we take displeasure with China’s actions, but I certainly won’t get ahead of the President with those announcements.
Q Is the President seriously considering forcing China to pay some sort of compensation reparations — whatever word you want to put on it?
MS. MCENANY: Again, when it comes to retaliatory measures, I will not get ahead of the President on that.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh, and welcome to the podium, as well.
MS. MCENANY: Thank you.
Q The President said yesterday that he has a high degree of confidence that the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, and yet his own intelligence agencies say they’re still investigating. So does the President have information? And has he drawn a conclusion that the intelligence community has not yet?
MS. MCENANY: Look, the President’s statement is consistent with the other intelligence assessments. While we continue to have very limited and dubious data from China, current assessments indicated that President Trump’s statement is consistent with what some analysts believe is the epicenter of where the virus began.
And I would note that intelligence statement you’re referring to really made two points: One, that this virus originated in China. Two, that it began through contact with infected animals or was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan. So I consider that consistent with what the President said: that he’s seen intelligence suggesting it could be in the Wuhan laboratory.
Q But he seemed to lean into the idea that this started in a laboratory, whereas the statement that we saw from the DNI said we’re still investigating those two options that you just laid out. Is the President in any way creating mixed messages by not saying, “We’re still investigating”?
MS. MCENANY: No, you know, let me remind everyone intelligence is just an estimate, essentially, and it’s up to policymakers to decide what to do with that intelligence. This — in this case, the policymaker is the President of the United States, and he’ll make that decision at the right time.
Steve.
Q Is the President any close to deciding what to do about China? Has he received any recommendations on the consequences? Is he anywhere near a decision?
MS. MCENANY: Look, again, I won’t get ahead of the President’s decision or the timing of that decision, but he takes this very seriously because the decisions of China that I referenced — slow-walking some of that information — put American lives at risk. And rest assured this President has one priority, and that is the safety and the wellbeing of American lives.
Q Thanks so much, Kayleigh. Welcome. Since it’s been more than 100 days since a press secretary stood up there, I wanted to get a better sense of what your plan is. Are you planning to do these in a daily basis at this point? And also, will you pledge never to lie to us from that podium?
MS. MCENANY: I will never lie to you. You have my word on that.
As to the timing of the briefings, we do plan to do them. I will announce timing of that forthcoming, but we do plan to continue these.
{snip}
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. The President tweeted this morning about the protests in Michigan. He essentially said that the governor of Michigan should work with the protestors. He called them “very good people” and said that they are very angry. Some of those protests, I’m sure you saw, included, you know, heavily armed protesters, members of militia groups. I wonder if the President was speaking about those specific members who stormed the capitol in Michigan when he talked about “very good people.”
MS. MCENANY: Look, the President was referencing, generally, that in this country you have a First Amendment right to protest. I think that’s something we all treasure here and we should, rightfully. You have a right to do that constitutionally, but you must protest within the bounds of the law. He encourages everyone to protest lawfully and also to engage in our social distancing guidelines, which we think all Americans should engage in.
Q Did he have any response to just the imagery of, you know, people with long guns, essentially, storming the capitol, going into face-offs with police officers and intimidating, in some way, some of the lawmakers?
MS. MCENANY: Again, the President says, you know, that we must protest lawfully and act within the bounds of the law.
Yes.
Q Thank you for being here. When the President says we did a “spectacular job” or when Jared Kushner talks about a “great success story,” some Americans see it as a lack of empathy. What’s — do you understand their reaction?
THE PRESIDENT: Look, you know, Jared Kushner has, first of all, done a great job for this administration. And what I would say to that is that — when he talked about a “success story,” he was talking about the story of this administration, which is a story of mobilization for the American people — the greatest mobilization of American industry since World War Two.
Of course, we grieve for every American life that has been lost, but we want the American people to be confident in the response of this administration. And that is what he was referring to.
{snip}
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. Just following up on Kristen’s question: China is blocking the World Health Organization from coming in and investigating how this started. Shouldn’t external investigators be allowed into Wuhan to determine, one, how the pandemic started, and two, maybe a way that we can expedite finding a cure for this thing?
MS. MCENANY: Look, you know, there’s no secret that China stopped U.S. investigators from coming in. It was of paramount importance that we got into China in an expedited fashion, and that didn’t happen.
With respect to the World Health Organization, they have some questions of their own to answer. The United States, as the President has emphasized, provides about $400 million to $500 million per year to the WHO, compared to China at roughly $40 million a year. But yet, the WHO appears to have a very clear China bias.
I mean, you look at this timeline and it’s really damning for the WHO, when you consider the fact that, on December 31st, you had Taiwanese officials warning about human-to-human transmission. The WHO did not make that public.
On January 9th, the WHO repeated China’s claim that the virus, quote, “does not transmit readily between people.” That was quite apparently false.
On January 14th, the WHO again repeated China’s talking points about no human-to-human transmission. They praised China’s leadership on the 22nd of January.
On the 23rd, they said — and this is incredible — “The pandemic didn’t represent a public health emergency of international concern.”
And even on February 29th, you had the WHO saying that when the coronavirus was spreading around the world, they — they chose to put — excuse me, political correctness first by opposing lifesaving travel restrictions: the travel restrictions this President put in place; the travel restrictions that Dr. Fauci praised as saving lives.
And you have the World Health Organization opposing a measure that saved American lives. That’s unacceptable, especially at a time when the U.S. was providing 400 to 500 million dollars.
{snip}
Q Yes, thank you, Kayleigh. Back to the DNI statement from yesterday. There is a quote that I’d you to give me a response to. It said, “The intelligence community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.” This was from the DNI statement. How do you see this statement? How do you understand this?
And also there was a piece in The New York Times that says senior Trump administration officials have pushed intelligence agencies to hunt for evidence to support the theory that COVID-19 was made in a Wuhan laboratory.
MS. MCENANY: I can assure you that no one is pressing the intelligence community to come to a determination. The intelligence community statement stands. It’s in perfect concert with what the President said. So, you know, I encourage the media to convey the facts to the American people, which is that we’re in line as an administration and we stand by the intelligence community, and that is in complete concert with what the President said yesterday.
Let’s see. Who haven’t I gotten to? Oh, I’ve gotten to almost everyone.
Q It’s easy.
MS. MCENANY: Okay, so we’re in round two. That’s great. Yes.
Q Thank you. Today, former Vice President Joe Biden denied allegations of sexual misconduct against him. Does President Trump take him at his word given that, as the President has said, he has denied allegations against himself?
MS. MCENANY: Well, what I would say is that we are pleased that the former Vice President has decided to go on the record. It took him less than — what? — 16 hours to follow the advice of the President of the United States and come out and publicly address those claims. So, you know, we’re glad to see that he’s on the record on this.
Q Let me just ask you about something the President said moments ago in an interview. He said that Tara Reade is, quote, “far more compelling than anything they had with respect to Brett Kavanaugh.” What did he mean by that? What is “more compelling”?
MS. MCENANY: You know, that’s the President’s assessment, so I would point you back to his words. I think it was a grave miscarriage of justice what happened with Justice Brett Kavanaugh. I — there’s no need for me to bring up some of the salacious, awful, and verifiably false allegations that were made against Justice Kavanaugh. That was an embarrassment for the Democrat Party to have dragged the name of a very respectable man through the mud like that. So I’ll leave it at that.
Q Yes. Kayleigh, as the radio pooler, I’m asking this on behalf of our colleague. There is word the decision to release Michael Cohen from prison to home confinement due to COVID-19 has been reversed. Did the White House directly or indirectly intervene here?
MS. MCENANY: No. So, absolutely not, I would say there.
But I am glad that you brought up justice and — because, look, there’s, again, a case of injustice that is yet to be brought up today. But I certainly would like to bring it up, and that’s the case of General Michael Flynn.
What we’ve all learned from that should scare every American citizen. The fact that you had Jim Comey admitting in December of last year that he violated a protocol by directing agents to confront Flynn — something that he would not, quote, “have gotten away with” under previous administrations. The FBI told Flynn he didn’t need a lawyer when they came to meet with him. McCabe told FBI agents that he didn’t think Flynn was lying, and then all of that information we’ve learned over the last few months and years culminates in the fact that we have a handwritten FBI note that says, quote, “We need to get [Flynn] to lie,” quote, and “get him fired.”
That was — there was an unfar — unfair target on the back of General Michael Flynn. It should concern every American anytime there’s a partisan pursuit of an individual. And that’s certainly — at least those questions are raised with regard to General Michael Flynn, an honorable man who served his country.
Jon.
Q Yeah, Kayleigh, on that: When the President fired Michael Flynn, he said he was doing so because he had lied to the Vice President and he had lied to the FBI. So, given all that you’ve just said, isn’t it — isn’t it still true? Doesn’t the President still believe that Michael Flynn lied to Vice President Pence and lied to the FBI?
MS. MCENANY: Well, first, let me address that. Vice President Pence is on the record about this. He said he’s inclined to believe that Flynn did not intentionally mislead him. And, I guess, I would turn the question on you and just ask: Does it trouble you that the FBI said we got to get Flynn to lie? Doesn’t that trouble you as a journalist and not only that — as an American citizen?
Q Well, it’s certainly something worth reporting.
MS. MCENANY: Absolutely.
Q It’s not my job to say whether or not it’s troubling. But — but the bottom line is the President said, point blank, that Flynn lied to the FBI and to the Vice President. And I’m just asking you a very direct question: Does he still believe that Michael Flynn lied to the FBI and lied to the Vice President?
MS. MCENANY: And again, I’d point you to the Vice President’s statement —
Q I’m asking you about the President.
MS. MCENANY: — that he’s inclined to believe that Flynn did not intentionally mislead him. And I’m asking back that all of you in your coverage endeavor to report what is a very scary story when the FBI is saying, “Let us get someone to lie.” I’ve seen very scant coverage of that. It’s a story worth reporting and a story that I hope the American people, if you haven’t heard it yet, are getting to hear for the very first time.
Q So does the President think he lied still?
MS. MCENANY: Chanel?
Q Thank you, Secretary McEnany. Going back to the South China Sea, we had an issue come up this morning where you had the USS Barry crossing international maritime waters. And then — this in the South China Sea. And Chinese officials are saying that this will be a dead-end endeavor.
Does — has the President spoken with any of the — any side on Chinese, as far as what the United States is going to continue doing? Is the U.S. Navy going to just ignore these threats and keep going through these international waters? What are your responses to China’s increasing aggression in the South China Sea again?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, I have no news report as to the President’s conversations. And for the specifics of that, I would redirect you to the NSC. Yes.
{snip}
Q Can I just come back, Kayleigh, to Jon’s question? Because Kellyanne Conway spoke to this the other day and suggested that two things could be true at the same time. We now have the Vice President saying it’s his belief that General Flynn may have unintentionally misled him. That’s now three years after the fact. But the two things that could have been true at the same time were that Flynn lied to the Vice President and also lied to the FBI. If you remove the FBI piece of that, would the President still have fired Michael Flynn for his belief that he had lied, at that point, to the Vice President?
MS. MCENANY: I mean, I’m not going to engage in a hypothetical, and that’s essentially what that would be. But what I would say is — echo yet again that this was a grave miscarriage of justice. I am very glad that the FBI thought to keep a paper trail, because what many have said for a very long time, pointing to the first few facts I shared with you, culminating in that handwritten note, I’m glad they kept such good documentation of their intent to slow-walk General Flynn into a trap and to essentially create, as I mentioned, a grave miscarriage of justice.
So, FBI, at least we can thank you for the great notetaking.
Q Let me follow up on that, though. John does bring up the point that General Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
MS. MCENANY: I’m not going to get involved in what was a matter of —
Q Well, how is that a miscarriage of justice, though, in a sense?
MS. MCENANY: Do you not consider it a miscarriage of justice when you have the FBI writing, “We want to get someone to lie”? Is that a miscarriage of justice?
Q But in the end, he pleaded guilty. That’s —
MS. MCENANY: You hesitated because you know what the answer is. The answer is yes.
Q That’s up to a lot of other people to decide.
MS. MCENANY: And I would encourage the media to cover it, because I’ve watched a lot of your networks, I’ve read a lot of your papers. I’ve seen a whole lot of scant information about Michael Flynn, when there was a whole lot of speculation about “Russia, Russia, Russia” culminating in $40 million of taxpayer money being lost and the complete and total exoneration of President Trump.
Thank you guys so much. I’m going to cut this short now and go see my little five-month-old here in a few hours.
Let me just say this: The President at 5:00 p.m. leaves today for Camp David. It’s going to be a working weekend. He’ll be talking with heads of states, with elected officials. We have a great event coming up this afternoon.
And, of course, everyone should watch the Fox News Town Hall with the President from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. It’ll be a can’t-miss television, much like the highly rated President Trump Coronavirus Task Force briefings have been.
Thank you.
END
2:43 P.M. EDT
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