Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany White House Press Conference Transcript October 1

Kayleigh McEnany: (00:00)
…. ago today, 58 people lost their lives and hundreds more were wounded in the horrific Las Vegas music festival shooting. That was three years ago today. On behalf of the President and his administration, our hearts continue to break for the victims and their families. They are in our prayers today.

Fulfilling his article two section two obligation, and following well-established precedent, President Trump nominated an eminently qualified candidate for the Supreme Court, Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Judge Barrett is extremely well-qualified. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Notre Dame law school, where she received the Hoynes Prize for achieving the best record in scholarship, and she also is a Rhode Scholar.

As Notre Dame law professor, Carter Snead said, “There’s just consensus. Amy Barrett is the best student, the smartest, and most talented person to ever come through the University of Notre Dame Law School.” In addition to being a gifted student, Judge Barrett clerked for the DC Circuit, Judge Lawrence Silberman, and the Lion of the Court Justice Antonin Scalia. In 2017, Judge Barrett was confirmed in a bipartisan vote to serve on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In support of her 2017 nomination, colleagues described Judge Barrett as quote, “A model of the fair and partial, and sympathetic judge.”

Judge Barrett is not only a qualified jurists, but a woman of great character. Judge Barrett is a devoted working mom of seven children, including two adopted from Haiti, and one child born with special needs. Judge Barrett is full of compassion and empathy, and she understands the needs of our nation’s most vulnerable. Judge Barrett would become the first ever mother of school-aged children to serve on the Supreme court of the United States.

If confirmed, Judge Barrett would be the only Republican appointed woman on the court and the fifth woman in the court’s history. Her qualifications are many. Her character is unquestionable. Her devotion to the constitution and interpreting the law as written, is steadfast. Judge Amy Coney Barrett is the right choice to serve on the Supreme Court. And with that, I will take questions.

Speaker 2: (02:16)
Kayleigh, if I could start off, I’d like to ask you for a definitive and declarative statement without ambiguity or deflection. As the person who speaks for the President, does the President denounce white supremacism and groups that is founded in all of their forms?

This has been answered yesterday by the President himself, the day before by the President himself on the debate stage, the President was asked this, he said, “Sure,” three times. Yesterday he was point blank asked, “Do you denounce white supremacy?” And he said, “I’ve always denounced any form of that.” I can go back and read for you in August, 2019, “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.”

In August of 2017, “Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups.” I have an entire list of these quotes that I can go through with you. He has condemned white supremacy more than any President in modern history.

Speaker 2: (03:15)
To clear it up this morning, can you naming it, make a declarative statement that the President denounces [crosstalk 00:03:22]-

I just did. The President has denounced this repeatedly.

Speaker 2: (03:26)
You read a bunch of quotes from the past. Can you-

The President was asked this. You’re contriving a storyline and a narrative.

Speaker 2: (03:31)
No, I’m not. I’m just asking you to put this to rest.

I just did. I read you all of the quotes. And if you need to see them in writing, I will put them in an email.

Speaker 2: (03:42)
You read me past quotes, can you do It [crosstalk 00:03:35]-

Paula.

Speaker 2: (03:42)
So Kayleigh, can you right now, denounce white supremacy and the groups that is [inaudible 00:03:45]-

I just did. The President has denounced white supremacy, the KKK, and hate groups in all forms. He signed a resolution to that effect. The President just last week, perhaps you all weren’t covering it, but just last week expressed his desire to see the KKK prosecuted as domestic terrorists.

This President had advocated for the death penalty for a white supremacist, the first federal execution in 17 years. His record on this is unmistakable and it’s shameful that the media refuses to cover it. Yes.

Paula: (04:13)
Thank you. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security say that racially motivated violent extremism is one of the deadliest threats that we face in the US. Does this White House agree without assessment? And what is it doing to combat this threat?

The President has done quite a bit to combat this threat. First of all, last week, he also, in addition to saying, he wants to prosecute the KKK as domestic terrorists. He said that lynching should be a national hate crime. Again, I think there’s no stronger signal that you can send then advocating for the execution of a white supremacist. The first time there’s been a federal execution and 17 years. He’s been unmistakable.

Paula: (04:51)
Saying [inaudible 00:04:51] do it, is different than actually doing it.

He’s continually condemned it. And it is really-

Paula: (04:55)
There’s a record on this? [inaudible 00:04:56] is mixed.

It is not mixed in the slightest.

Paula: (05:00)
[crosstalk 00:05:00] he as equivocated at times he said he didn’t want to acknowledge it or address it. His record is very mixed on this issue.

His record is not mixed in the slightest.

Paula: (05:05)
His record is very mixed.

And when you go back in history, you can see that-

Paula: (05:08)
I have his history right here, we have his quotes.

When you go back in history, you can see that Jesse Jackson has praised the President, as someone who served underserved communities, this President with Mar-a-Lago, it was the first Palm Beach Club open to African-Americans and Jews. And in fact-

Paula: (05:23)
[crosstalk 00:05:23] his record is mixed.

He was praised-

Paula: (05:25)
[crosstalk 00:05:25] he has not been consistent on the issue of white supremacy.

He has been entirely consistent.

Paula: (05:27)
So I’m asking you what this White House does to combat what the FBI to says is the deadliest threat in this country?

It is quite shameful… Let me speak, Paula. Paula, we’re not having a debate on a cable news set right now.

Paula: (05:34)
You’re saying that he condemns it. I have his record right here, it’s mixed.

You need to let me finish.

Paula: (05:39)
His record is mixed.

Its quite funny that the media goes haywire about interrupting in debates and then chooses to pursue that very same tactic themselves. This is a White House briefing. You ask a question and you give me time to answer. Yes.

Speaker 4: (05:52)
Kayleigh, the President said at the debate that Roe vs. Wade was not on the ballot, and that Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s view was not known. She signed a newspaper ad in 2006 with call for, quote, “An end to the barbaric legacy of Roe vs.Wade.” And the President has explicitly promised to support judges that overturn Roe. Was he downplaying reviews on Tuesday night? And what do you say to the American public about whether Roe is on the ballot?

The President has been clear that he would never ask a judge to pre-judge a case. Judge Amy Coney Barrett has, on multiple occasions, said, “It is never appropriate for a judge to impose that judge’s personal convictions, whether they derive from faith or anywhere else on the law.”

She said that she, “Continues to stand and vehemently believe the core proposition, that if there is ever a conflict between a judge’s personal conviction and that judge’s duty under the rule of law, it is never ever permissible for that judge to follow their personal convictions in the decision of a case rather than what the law requires.”

Speaker 4: (06:52)
Does the President expect her to overturn Roe? He has said he would only appoint judges that overturn Roe.

The President would never ask a judge to prejudge a case. And what I would also say is we fully expect that the Ginsburg rule be followed throughout the course of these proceedings. It was then, Senator Joe Biden, who set the Ginsburg rule and saying that, “There are no questions on how Ginsburg will decide any specific cases that may come before her.” And Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg indeed applied that rule throughout the course of her hearing on the first amendment religion clause, and various other issues.

Speaker 4: (07:30)
[crosstalk 00:07:30] views are not known.

Yes.

Speaker 5: (07:30)
Will the President commit to participating in the next debate before the commission changes the rules?

First, with regards to the commission rule changes, the President made clear his view on that yesterday that he thinks the only way there’s a fair debate is changing the moderator and a change in the Democrat nominee. He wants to debate, he plans on being at the debate, but he wants the rules to be fair and wants a fair exchange. And doesn’t want rules that cover for a certain candidates inability to perform well. Yes.

Speaker 6: (07:49)
Thank you, Kayleigh. Can you explain why it’s appropriate for the President to be holding rallies this weekend in two areas that this White House has declared to be red zones in Wisconsin?

Yeah. So the President believes that people have a first amendment right to political speech. He is having a rally. People can choose whether or not to come.

Speaker 6: (08:08)
But the governor has begged the White House to please not continue having events like this. Your own coronavirus task force says, “This is an area that people need to be really careful and double down on social distancing.” So why is it right for the President to be coming in there and holding another rally, or two rallies?

We employ measures to protect rally goers. We encourage mask wearing and hand sanitizing-

Speaker 6: (08:28)
We’ve all covered these rallies. These people are [crosstalk 00:08:30] thousands of people standing close to each other, not wearing a mask.

Did you watch the Democrat nominees rally yesterday? There was no social distancing there. So I assume you guys expressed the same line of questioning to the Democrats. But what I would say is this is there really seems to be two standards of health in this country. One for Trump’s supporters, and one for everyone else.

You had 1300 health experts, literally sign a letter that said, “We do not condemn these gatherings,” speaking of the protests that we all saw play out. “We do not condemn these gatherings as risky for COVID-19 transmission. We support them as vital to the national public health.” So it’s vital if you’re protesting, but somehow political speech is no longer vital when it comes to a Trump supporter. Kaitlin.

Kaitlin: (09:08)
So the Proud Boys are people who consider them to be members of this group, give voice to these misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, views. They’re a despicable group by pretty much anyone’s standard. So when the President was asked to help them and you say he denounced them, that’s what you’re insisting that he did on the debate stage the other night. If that’s the case, then why are they celebrating what the President said on the debate stage in front of millions of people?

Well, I don’t speak for that group, so I’m not sure why you’re asking me why they’re saying a certain thing.

Kaitlin: (09:40)
But I’m saying, if someone denounced you, you probably wouldn’t put it on a t-shirt and make badges of it. Right?

The President did denounce them. He was asked, “Will you tell them to stand down.” He said, “Sure.” And went on to stand-

Kaitlin: (09:50)
[crosstalk 00:09:50] standby, which seems like an instruction.

He said, “Stand back.” And then just yesterday, when he was asked, he said, specifically, “Stand down.” A synonym with stand back. And the President said, “Sure,” when asked by the moderator, whether they should stand down. So again-

Kaitlin: (10:02)
No, he said-

It’s really interesting too, to see that the media seems to be the only one putting the names of these groups into headlines, into media reporting. He didn’t know who the Proud Boys were. First time I heard of them was in the debate. But the media continues to put these names into circulation and give them a lot of public attention. Justin.

Kaitlin: (10:21)
[crosstalk 00:10:21] he was given about 12 hours, more than that, since from the debate, from when he was asked to clarify yesterday. And he didn’t come out and clarify yesterday. Instead he did what you did with John asked you to unambiguously denounce these groups, you just pointed to past things that you’ve said. I just don’t understand why you knew you were going to get these questions and you don’t have a statement ready to just say, “We do unambiguously denounce these groups.”

Kaitlin, do you know why people have lost trust in the media? There is a reporter from your network yesterday, your network. And in a tweet said, quote-

Kaitlin: (10:51)
I’m asking you a question.

I’m answering your question.

Kaitlin: (10:51)
I don’t even know what you’re going to bring up, but that has nothing to do with what I’m asking you right now.

I sat here, when you lobbed your partisan attack question. So you will allow me to give an answer. The President and someone from your network said yesterday, in a tweet, “The President dodged a question about white supremacy.” That was a tweet from a CNN reporter. The President specifically, verbatim, was asked yesterday, “White supremacy. Do you denounce them?” To which he responded, “I have always denounced any form of that.” Those are the facts and CNN, I know that truth is of no moment to your network, but those are the facts.

Kaitlin: (11:25)
They’re not the facts. Why are Republicans calling on the President to be more forceful? His own party.

Justin: (11:32)
Thanks, Kayleigh. I had a question about unemployment. But, I first wanted to clean up something from your opening. You said Judge Barrett was a Rhodes scholar. I’m not sure that that’s true.

That’s what I have written here.

Speaker 9: (11:42)
She attended Rhodes College.

Attended Rhodes College, so my bad.

Justin: (11:45)
So very different thing. All right. Anyway, within the last week, around 50,000 workers, Disney, United American Airlines, all lost their jobs. There’s negotiations going up on Capitol Hill, but there seems to be a division between Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, who has expressed some willingness and ability to work with Speaker Pelosi. And Chief of Staff Meadows who is widely reported to be against sort of moving forward with this deal, was up on the Hill, speaking with Senator McConnell yesterday, but not involved in the actual talks.

Justin: (12:19)
At this point, isn’t it times for the President, especially considering the tight calendar before the election, to step in himself and have these conversations? And this came up at the debate the other night, if not now, when, for the President to get involved.

Yeah. First I would say Nancy Pelosi is not being serious. If she becomes serious, then we can have a discussion here, but-

Justin: (12:43)
[crosstalk 00:12:43] offer by trillions of dollars.

And we’ve raised our offer, but when you lower your offer, 2.2 trillion, and you ask for direct payments to illegal immigrants, and you ask for a certain deportation forgiveness’s in your offer, it’s not a serious offer. What we are talking about here is relief for the American people, for American citizens, not direct payments to illegal immigrants.

We raised our offer to 1.6 trillion among that was 250 billion for state and local. The 250 billion for state and local is the estimated loss because of COVID. And also there’s 150 billion for schools, 50 billion above what Nancy Pelosi asked for. It is a good proposal, but it’s one that she is not interested in. And, you have one more question?

Justin: (13:24)
I was just going to follow up whenever you’re ready.

Yeah, no, go ahead.

Justin: (13:27)
If immigration as a stumbling block, and this deal’s not going to get done because of that, Chief Meadows in the past had said that you guys were looking at unilateral executive actions on airlines [inaudible 00:13:39]. Specifically, we’re seeing massive playoffs in that sector right now. He had also said that there might be other things available for the millions of other Americans who are facing joblessness right now, but are any of those things going to happen?

Yeah, it’s a great question. And it’s very sad to see what’s happening in the airline industry. I’ve met a few of the airline workers on a flight who would lose their job. And their job loss, 19,000 people facing layoffs is because of Nancy Pelosi. The White House, right now, you talk about unilateral action. We are willing to look at a plan, a legislation that is just clean legislation to protect those airline workers.

Nancy Pelosi, rather than playing election partisan politics to come to the negotiating table. Let’s consolidate around things we agree on. And I think something we can agree on is 19,000 workers should not lose their job in the airline. So it’s incumbent upon Nancy Pelosi to engage with Secretary Mnuchin and the chief of staff on making that a reality. Yes.

Speaker 10: (14:36)
Thank you, Kayleigh. As you know, the President has criticized the mail-in voting process quite a bit over the last few weeks. The other day, he said, “They found a lot of ballots in a river.” Who is they?

What the President was referring to are something that we’ve seen just in the last seven days. Where in Wisconsin, there were trails of many ending up in a ditch. That’s I believe the specific he was referring to. That included absentee ballots.

Speaker 10: (15:05)
Where specifically? And this particular statement though, who is they that found those ballots? And where is this river anywhere in this country?

The local authorities, it was a ditch in Wisconsin that they were found. And I can get the article to your inbox if you’d like. And beyond that-

Speaker 10: (15:21)
If he misspoke, that’s fine.

No, that’s-

Speaker 10: (15:23)
He meant a ditch rather than a river.

That’s what the President was referring to. And you’re really, you’re missing the forest for the trees here. The point is-

Speaker 10: (15:30)
I cover the news, and I like to report accurately in the news. When the President says, “They found a lot of ballots in a river,” I simply want to know where the river is.

No, you simply want to ignore the fact of the matter. Again, please allow me to respond.

Speaker 10: (15:43)
I got asked so many questions about this, and my Fox affiliates, “Where is this river?”

Allow me to respond to you.

Speaker 10: (15:51)
And I can’t give them and accurate information, and that’s why I’m asking you.

This is what is happening here. You are ignoring the problem here, which is last week in Pennsylvania, you had ballots found in a ditch. That is a fact. In Wisconsin, seven military ballots, all marked for Trump were found cast aside. There are problems with mass mail-in voting. I actually don’t understand the lack of journalistic curiosity and reporting on this. There used to be-

Speaker 10: (16:14)
I want to know where the river is.

There used to be curiosity-

Speaker 10: (16:16)
Where’s the river?

In fact, the Washington Post before President Trump, highlighted the problems with mail-in voting. They said, “The result was an unexpected stress test of mail balloting systems when this was tried. Many of which were designed to handle only a small portion of the vote in are not ready to scale up and respond to the pandemic.” So the media once said mail-in voting is not ready to scale up in the middle of a pandemic.

Speaker 10: (16:37)
So there is no river.

Now, there’s no journalistic curiosity when we’re finding Trump-

Speaker 10: (16:39)
There’s no river then.

… ballots cast aside.

Speaker 11: (16:41)
He’s asking you about it.

There’s no journalistic curiosity when a 100,000-

Speaker 10: (16:44)
I’m asking you where the river is and you can’t give name.

… ballots were sent out in Brooklyn.

Speaker 10: (16:48)
If you say the President in a ditch, then you meant a ditch.

They were inaccurate ballots, and then 100,000 more. Shameful filibustering and lack of journalistic curiosity.

Speaker 10: (16:54)
I’m very curious, where’s the river? That’s curiosity.

Yes.

Speaker 12: (16:57)
Kayleigh, Senator Tim Scott said the President misspoke at the debate on white supremacy. Did he misspeak? And has he spoken [crosstalk 00:17:04]-

When the President denounced white supremacy and said, “Sure,” no, he did not misspeak.

Speaker 12: (17:10)
Has he spoken to Senator Scott?

Yes.

Speaker 12: (17:12)
Has he spoken to Senator Scott.

Yes.

Speaker 13: (17:14)
Kayleigh, the 1.6 trillion, that the administration has [inaudible 00:17:18] Speaker Pelosi is that the highest top line that the administration is going to go? And Speaker Pelosi also just said that she’s expecting a counteroffer from the administration. Is the White House and Secretary Mnuchin preparing one right now?

Yeah. Right now we have the 1.6 trillion number. And I’ll let you know if that number goes up. Yes.

Speaker 14: (17:35)
Thanks, Kayleigh. How does the White House interpret the Pope’s refusal to meet with Secretary of State Pompeo?

I have not spoken to the President about that. So I’d have to get back to you on that. Yes.

Speaker 15: (17:45)
Kayleigh, I wanted to ask you about the statement from the President Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron about the conflict in Nagorno- Karabakh. How worried is this White House that this contract is going to escalate beyond a regional dispute?

Yeah. Sorry. Back up one second. What was the top of your question there? It was about what we just signed.

Speaker 15: (18:07)
Yeah, there is a statement I understand that was put out by Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron, and also Donald Trump, that calls for peaceful negotiation [crosstalk 00:00:18:16]-

On Armenia and Azerbaijan, right. Yeah. So President Trump, along with President Putin, as you noted and President Macron, representing the co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group released a statement condemning in the strongest terms, the recent escalation of the violence along the line of contact in the conflict zone.

And we call for an immediate cessation of hostilities between the relevant military forces. And we also call them the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to commit without delay, to resuming substantive negotiations in good faith and without preconditions under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. Yes.

Speaker 15: (18:54)
Just quickly follow up. Is there a concern about sort of regional powers, major regional powers, being drawn into this? Is that something that the White House is sort of actively trying to combat?

That’s all I have to say on that matter at this time. Yes.

Speaker 16: (19:08)
Thank you, Kayleigh. I have two questions for you. What about the list of former Trump Administration Officials were coming out against President Trump and supporting Joe Biden is growing. Is the President concerned about these dissidents and what they are talking about?

No, we’re not concerned. The people who have come out are people who don’t have personal interactions with the President and they’re pedaling things that are false hoods to advance their careers.

Speaker 16: (19:37)
And I have a question about the election vote. What is President Trump’s strategy to convince the Latino voters beyond the Cubans and Catholics to vote for him? What is the importance of the Latino vote for him?

Yeah. The President believes that he has a lot of accomplishments for the Latino community. In particular, historic low unemployment, a thriving economy, a historic high home ownership for Latino men and women in this country. Those are things that President Trump made possible and will bring back. And this economic recovery that we’re seeing, this V-shaped recovery.

And also, I’m glad you asked that point specifically because there were some new data that came out that said, “As we’re recovering in this super V-shaped recovery, we’ve regained nearly,” for the Hispanic community, “Nearly six in 10 jobs lost among Hispanic Americans were regained. And it took Obama-Biden an entire year to recover that many jobs.” So the V-shape recovery is indeed a V-shaped recovery for Hispanic men and women in this country, especially. Yes.

Speaker 16: (20:38)
How about his message against immigration, do you think this could hurt [crosstalk 00:20:40]-

For what. Oh, no, on immigration-

Speaker 16: (20:43)
[crosstalk 00:20:43] immigration.

The President believes that the Latino population very much wants a lawful immigration system. And also, we believe his law and order message is resonating and very important as voters want to be secure in their homes and secure in their streets. Yes.

Speaker 17: (20:58)
Thank you, Kayleigh. The President recently unveiled his Platinum Plan, which is geared toward the black community. Promises to create 3 million new jobs, [inaudible 00:21:07] $500 billion in access to capital. It’s lot of money. And nobody really seems to be talking about that. Can you tell us how this assistance will be administered and how the White House will follow up to track the success of the plan?

Yeah. This is a very important plan for the black community. It also bears mentioning that in the pandemic as we’ve regained jobs, roughly four in 10 jobs lost among black Americans have been gained, and it took Obama Biden two years to do that. So we’re indeed outpacing in job growth for the black community, and the Latino community. And the President has promised this community that he’s looking to create three million jobs in the next term.

He wants to create 500,000 new black owned businesses. Increase access to capital in black communities, almost 500 billion. He’s done that with opportunity zones and it’s estimated that about a million people will be lifted out of poverty and given opportunity because of this. Among another number of items, I should say, in the plan of where he wants to prosecute the KKK as domestic terrorists and make lynching a federal crime.

Again, all of that lost upon the media as they misreport, take out of context, ignore the verbatim words of this President when he denounced white supremacy yesterday, when he denounced it at the debate, when he’s denounced it more than any other President in modern history. And in fact, something else lost upon the media is the absolute turning of a blind eye to Antifa. Carrying the water for Democrats, the media, it apparently agrees with Jerry Nadler, that Antifa violence is a myth.

In August Senate hearings, democrats refused to condemn Antifa. Again, no journalistic curiosity here, despite the fact that Andy Ngo who was a victim of Antifa said, “Democrats have mastered,” Democrats, he should add the media too, “Have mastered the art of making its violence appear innocuous.” Their violence isn’t innocuous. Antifa is not an idea. Andy Ngo can tell you that because he was beaten by a group of protestors, Antifa protesters, suffering brain bleed.

Another man can tell you this, who in 2019, the victim, his name was Adam Kelly suffered from a concussion and got 25 staples in his head. But still silence from Democrats ignoring this group from Democrats. And in fact, as we just saw recently, there was a Trump supporter who was killed by a 100% Antifa man; that is how he described himself. And again, no reporting here, but I guess I did the job of the media by getting this information myself.

This man who was 100% Antifa, this man, in fact, had been arrested before at 2:00 AM on July 5th in a public protest, carrying an illegal weapon, he resisted arrest. He was taken to jail where he was merely given a citation, put back on the streets and the very next month, this 100% Antifa man was lying in wait before he killed an innocent Trump supporter. Ideas do not target police officer’s, ideas do not burn down buildings. Ideas do not kill innocent Americans; organizations do. And Democrats should condemn the shameful group in the same manner, President Trump continues to condemn white supremacy.

Speaker 18: (24:14)
He’s not condemning white supremacy.

Speaker 19: (24:17)
We need an example.

Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany White House Press Conference Transcript October 1

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