In a new book, the former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany repeats her famous insistence that she never lied to reporters, in part because her education at “Oxford, Harvard and Georgetown” meant she always relied on “truthful, well-sourced, well-researched information”.
But McEnany – who also studied law at the University of Miami – makes claims in her book which do not stand up to such assurances, for instance about Donald Trump’s support among the US military and about the severity of Covid cases among White House staff.
McEnany was Trump’s fourth press secretary, after Sean Spicer, Sarah Sanders and Stephanie Grisham. With the arrival of For Such A Time As This: My Faith Journey Through the White House and Beyond, all four have written memoirs. Grisham, who published a gossip-filled book in October, is the only one to have turned on Trump.
McEnany’s book will be published on 7 December by Post Hill Press, a conservative outlet. The Guardian obtained a copy.
McEnany gave her first briefing as White House press secretary on 1 May 2020, restarting sessions abandoned by Sanders and Grisham.
A reporter asked: “Will you pledge to never lie to us from that podium?”
McEnany replied: “I will never lie to you. You have my word on that.”
As the Guardian wrote then, “even on what proved an assured debut” McEnany “skated close to peddling dodgy information about Trump’s responses to the coronavirus pandemic (‘This president has always sided on the side of data’) and to allegations of sexual misconduct (‘He has always told the truth’)”.
McEnany now works for Fox News. She has restated her claim, telling a conservative audience this June: “And then there was the question, ‘Will you ever lie to us?’, and I said without hesitation, ‘No’, and I never did, as a woman of faith.
“As a mother of baby Blake, as a person who meticulously prepared at some of the world’s hardest institutions, I never lied. I sourced my information, but that will never stop the press from calling you a liar.”
On the page, however, McEnany often relies on single sources, anecdotes and conservative talking points. As a result she is at least, in the famous words of Alan Clark, a former British minister, “economical with the actualité”.
For instance, McEnany claims “it was no secret that the military supported Trump, overwhelmingly”, adding: “It was the job of the deep state to change that, and the press would willingly assist. They tried, but they failed.”
According to conservative conspiracy theorists, the deep state is a body of bureaucrats and intelligence agents who worked to thwart Trump in office. Steve Bannon, once a senior Trump aide, did much to popularise the theory. He has said it is for “nut cases”.
As evidence of press support for the deep state, McEnany cites a bombshell Atlantic report from September 2020 which said Trump spoke dismissively of veterans, including the late senator John…
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