Yahoo Movies Kayleigh McEnany, Former White House Press Secretary, Joins Fox News
Kayleigh McEnany, who was White House press secretary under Donald Trump, is joining Fox News.
McEnany will be an on-air commentator. Fox News on Tuesday aired McEnany’s first interview since leaving with White House, a sitdown with Harris Faulker. After the first excerpt was shown, Faulkner then welcomed McEnany to “the Fox family. We will be seeing much more of her in the future.”
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She is the latest former Trump administration official to join the network. Last month, Fox Business launched a daily afternoon show with Larry Kudlow, who was Trump’s top economic adviser.
McEnany previously was an on-air commentator for CNN.
There already was speculation that McEnany would join the network. In January, the network said that they had talked to her about a position, but that she was not an employee at the time. Questions were raised about McEnany’s role after a public interest group obtained her recent financial disclosure form. On the form, she listed “employment agreement with Fox News, starting work in January.”
McEnany had a combative relationship with the press, as a number of reporters groused that she was acting more as a Trump campaign press secretary than government official. In fact, during the final weeks of the campaign and afterward, McEnany held dual roles, going on air as a spokesperson for Trump’s reelection effort while still maintaining her government position.
In the Fox News interview, McEnany defended her tenure, saying that she was proud of using the briefing room platform to tell stories of the “forgotten” men and women. She also weighed in on the current press secretary, Jen Psaki. She said that “I wish her all the best. I left her notes saying that much.”
“We met previously one time and she was very kind, and so were some of her colleagues in the press shop,” she said.
She added, “But it is different in a big way. I’ll never forget watching one of the early press briefings and she was asked about the antifa riots, and I believe she said that she hadn’t spoken to the president about that, and they let her move on, whereas if I whereas if I were asked about violence on the other side of the aisle, that wouldn’t have been an answer that flew, nor should it have. And so I just think the standards are different.” McEnany was referring to unrest in January in Washington state and Oregon, shortly after Joe Biden was inaugurated.
In her press briefing, Psaki was asked whether she would be willing to go on a show hosted by McEnany if she ever gets one.
“I’ve done Fox News Sunday twice now. I’m happy to go on a range of shows,” she said. She said that she met McEnany when they were both CNN contributors. “Like many Americans, we disagree on political issues, but we talked about our families, our spouses, sports, all sorts of things in the green room, and I certainly wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
McEnany also defended what Trump said at the Jan. 5 rally on the Ellipse that preceded the Capitol siege. She noted that Trump called for demonstrators to march peacefully.
The video of McEnany’s appearance is here.
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