CNN’s Jake Tapper says Kayleigh McEnany lies like ‘most people breathe’
Comparing McEnany to Kellyanne Conway, he called Conway ‘more of a filibusterer and subject changer than a liar.’
Veteran journalist and CNN host Jake Tapper appeared on the network’s Reliable Sources this weekend, a show focused on accountability in media.
On the show, CNN’s chief Washington correspondent said he does not allow White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany or Trump campaign spokesperson Jason Miller on his daily show, The Lead with Jake Tapper, because the two lie “the way most people breathe.”
“There are some people that are so mendacious, I wouldn’t put them on air,” Tapper told Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter, answering a question about booking aides for President Donald Trump on The Lead.
“Kayleigh McEnany, I never booked her. Jason Miller from the Trump campaign, I would never book him,” said Tapper. “These are just people who tell lies the way that most people breathe. There was no value in that.”
Tapper maintained McEnany has been unable to “acknowledge reality.”
McEnany, who will be leaving her White House post in weeks, responded on Twitter, saying: “This is a therapy session for a broken network, and @jaketapper is lazy enough to participate by lobbing baseless personal attacks, with ZERO evidence. Jake’s real problem: I do not leak. I do not lie. But I DO call out the lies of the media (i.e. CNN Russia collusion hoax!)”
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Tapper drew a comparison between McEnany and former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway. He called Conway “more of a filibusterer and a subject changer than a liar.”
“There is a big difference with someone like Kayleigh McEnany, who just like, this is what she does,” Tapper said. “She tells lies, all the time; she cannot acknowledge reality, and I am not going to put someone like that on air.”
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McEnany was named White House press secretary in April 2020 — Trump’s fourth, following Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Stephanie Grisham. She’s been a voice from the administration during the coronavirus pandemic.
She tested positive for the virus in October just days after the president was diagnosed, and she recovered at home.
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