REAL News for REAL People
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany - September 3, 2020
Yes.
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. The government runs out of funding by the end of the month. Is the White House confident it can avoid another shutdown? And is the President open to including some of this COVID stimulus as part of a CR?
MS. MCENANY: I haven't talked to him about that, but we do believe that we'll be able to get funding to avoid a shutdown.
Yes.
Q And are negotiations underway now? Like, have you guys started talking to Congress about this yet?
MS. MCENANY: I'd have to talk with the Chief. I haven't talked to him specifically about that. But we - it has been discussed internally, I know at least that.
Yes.
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. Can you give us a sense - on the memo issued last night, can you give us more of a sense of the funding that would be under review? And also, why does the White House believe that this is the right time to be considering restricting funding for states who are in the middle of a pandemic and some are dealing with violence?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, again - so first - to the first part of your question, it's undergoing a review. Part of that step one of this memo is for federal agencies to detail the funds being provided. So I can't give you a readout of exactly which funds are being looked at until that review is conducted.
But why now? Why now? Because in New York City, you've seen 177 percent increase in shootings in July. Meanwhile, you have the feckless government of Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo pulling $1 billion, with a "B," from NYPD. At the same time, we learned that in a 28-day period, arrests were down in New York City by 62 percent. The looting of 450 businesses that have been damaged. In Seattle, a lawless CHOP zone where two died.
Now is the right time when you see numbers like this because lives are at stake and, oftentimes, the lives of innocent little babies who should be here today if Democrat mayors got their act together, didn't cut funding from police, did start arresting people, and enforced the laws.
Yes.
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. The President and Joe Biden are both going to be in Shanksville, PA, next Friday to commemorate 9/11. Have you spoken to him about appearing with the former Vice President, like he did with Secretary Clinton back in 2016 up in New York?
MS. MCENANY: I have no details for that upcoming event, but we are intending to be in Shanksville as well.
Q Okay, and then just one more follow-up on the cities. Again, I know it's - it's under review. Has the President directed Director Vought to make sure that future coronavirus aid is exempt from this memorandum?
MS. MCENANY: I don't see in what universe that would be connected to the issue at hand, which is ensuring lawfulness in the cities -
Q (Inaudible) first through FEMA or HHS or anything like that.
MS. MCENANY: But again, I don't want to get into the specific funding ahead of the review process that is ongoing.
Yes. Are we all set? Okay. There we go. Yep.
Q Thank you. Facebook said earlier today that it would be removing the posts where the President was talking yesterday with a local reporter about voting twice if it's not corrected and if it doesn't indicate that the President was wrong in those assertions. What do you have to say about Facebook's move on this post?
MS. MCENANY: You said Facebook designated a post? I missed the very first part.
Q Right. They said that they would remove the post from those profiles who posted and do not say that the - what the assertions of the President are wrong.
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, I haven't seen the particular post you're referring to, but the President is crystal clear here that he only - again, to read that part of his quote: "If your vote isn't tabulated, then you'll be able to vote in person."
This is about verifying that every vote is counted, because we know voters are disenfranchised. Just in the 2020 presidential primary, for instance, there were 100,000 ballots rejected in California - mail-in ballots. In New York, one in five - think about that - one in five mail-in ballots were rejected, a total of 84,000 ballots rejected in New York City alone.
And we know the thin margins by which elections are decided, and we also know that, as research has shown, young, black, and Hispanic voters are more likely to have their mail-in ballots rejected. That's according to a Washington Post article.
So the President wants enfranchisement, not disenfranchisement. That's his goal with the comments that he made yesterday.
Q If I may -
Chanel.
Q If I may ask another one on immigration, please.
MS. MCENANY: Okay.
Q The President has said that he will be issuing another order in September. Do you have any more information on that - when he may be issuing that immigration order?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, no updates on a forthcoming immigration EO.
Yes.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. You mentioned role model cities like Kenosha. If, say, Mayor de Blasio and Mayor Bowser, for instance, if they were to, this week, take specific actions and get some of the law and order back under control, would this memo continue to go forward or would you continue to propagate the plans listed in this memo from yesterday?
MS. MCENANY: We'd have to see a radical change in behavior from the mayor of D.C. who allowed a church to burn; from the mayor of Portland who stood with the protesters only to be chased out of his own home - the windows shattered of his building by the very protesters he deemed peaceful, who are actually anarchists who took the life of a 39-year-old man this past weekend.
But, look, when the local government doesn't act, we use every avenue available to us at the federal level. And that pertains to this memo as one example. Another example is Operation LeGend, which we're very proud of and have some new numbers for you on that.
Since the operation's launch, more than 2,000 arrests, including 147 homicides, have been made. More than 544 firearms have been seized, and more than - those are illegal weapons. And more than 7 kilos of fentanyl, 14 kilos of heroin, 12 kilos of cocaine, and 50 kilos of methamphetamine have been seized. And of the individuals arrested, 476 have been charged with federal offenses.
And there's a detailed readout from DOJ of each offense and the great work that our federal law enforcement officials have done.
So thank you to our police. Thank you to our federal law enforcement. You keep us safe when Democrat mayors and derelict governors do not.
Thank you.
The White House
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Q Thanks, Kayleigh. The government runs out of funding by the end of the month. Is the White House confident it can avoid another shutdown? And is the President open to including some of this COVID stimulus as part of a CR?
MS. MCENANY: I haven't talked to him about that, but we do believe that we'll be able to get funding to avoid a shutdown.
Yes.
Q And are negotiations underway now? Like, have you guys started talking to Congress about this yet?
MS. MCENANY: I'd have to talk with the Chief. I haven't talked to him specifically about that. But we - it has been discussed internally, I know at least that.
Yes.
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. Can you give us a sense - on the memo issued last night, can you give us more of a sense of the funding that would be under review? And also, why does the White House believe that this is the right time to be considering restricting funding for states who are in the middle of a pandemic and some are dealing with violence?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, again - so first - to the first part of your question, it's undergoing a review. Part of that step one of this memo is for federal agencies to detail the funds being provided. So I can't give you a readout of exactly which funds are being looked at until that review is conducted.
But why now? Why now? Because in New York City, you've seen 177 percent increase in shootings in July. Meanwhile, you have the feckless government of Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo pulling $1 billion, with a "B," from NYPD. At the same time, we learned that in a 28-day period, arrests were down in New York City by 62 percent. The looting of 450 businesses that have been damaged. In Seattle, a lawless CHOP zone where two died.
Now is the right time when you see numbers like this because lives are at stake and, oftentimes, the lives of innocent little babies who should be here today if Democrat mayors got their act together, didn't cut funding from police, did start arresting people, and enforced the laws.
Yes.
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. The President and Joe Biden are both going to be in Shanksville, PA, next Friday to commemorate 9/11. Have you spoken to him about appearing with the former Vice President, like he did with Secretary Clinton back in 2016 up in New York?
MS. MCENANY: I have no details for that upcoming event, but we are intending to be in Shanksville as well.
Q Okay, and then just one more follow-up on the cities. Again, I know it's - it's under review. Has the President directed Director Vought to make sure that future coronavirus aid is exempt from this memorandum?
MS. MCENANY: I don't see in what universe that would be connected to the issue at hand, which is ensuring lawfulness in the cities -
Q (Inaudible) first through FEMA or HHS or anything like that.
MS. MCENANY: But again, I don't want to get into the specific funding ahead of the review process that is ongoing.
Yes. Are we all set? Okay. There we go. Yep.
Q Thank you. Facebook said earlier today that it would be removing the posts where the President was talking yesterday with a local reporter about voting twice if it's not corrected and if it doesn't indicate that the President was wrong in those assertions. What do you have to say about Facebook's move on this post?
MS. MCENANY: You said Facebook designated a post? I missed the very first part.
Q Right. They said that they would remove the post from those profiles who posted and do not say that the - what the assertions of the President are wrong.
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, I haven't seen the particular post you're referring to, but the President is crystal clear here that he only - again, to read that part of his quote: "If your vote isn't tabulated, then you'll be able to vote in person."
This is about verifying that every vote is counted, because we know voters are disenfranchised. Just in the 2020 presidential primary, for instance, there were 100,000 ballots rejected in California - mail-in ballots. In New York, one in five - think about that - one in five mail-in ballots were rejected, a total of 84,000 ballots rejected in New York City alone.
And we know the thin margins by which elections are decided, and we also know that, as research has shown, young, black, and Hispanic voters are more likely to have their mail-in ballots rejected. That's according to a Washington Post article.
So the President wants enfranchisement, not disenfranchisement. That's his goal with the comments that he made yesterday.
Q If I may -
Chanel.
Q If I may ask another one on immigration, please.
MS. MCENANY: Okay.
Q The President has said that he will be issuing another order in September. Do you have any more information on that - when he may be issuing that immigration order?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, no updates on a forthcoming immigration EO.
Yes.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. You mentioned role model cities like Kenosha. If, say, Mayor de Blasio and Mayor Bowser, for instance, if they were to, this week, take specific actions and get some of the law and order back under control, would this memo continue to go forward or would you continue to propagate the plans listed in this memo from yesterday?
MS. MCENANY: We'd have to see a radical change in behavior from the mayor of D.C. who allowed a church to burn; from the mayor of Portland who stood with the protesters only to be chased out of his own home - the windows shattered of his building by the very protesters he deemed peaceful, who are actually anarchists who took the life of a 39-year-old man this past weekend.
But, look, when the local government doesn't act, we use every avenue available to us at the federal level. And that pertains to this memo as one example. Another example is Operation LeGend, which we're very proud of and have some new numbers for you on that.
Since the operation's launch, more than 2,000 arrests, including 147 homicides, have been made. More than 544 firearms have been seized, and more than - those are illegal weapons. And more than 7 kilos of fentanyl, 14 kilos of heroin, 12 kilos of cocaine, and 50 kilos of methamphetamine have been seized. And of the individuals arrested, 476 have been charged with federal offenses.
And there's a detailed readout from DOJ of each offense and the great work that our federal law enforcement officials have done.
So thank you to our police. Thank you to our federal law enforcement. You keep us safe when Democrat mayors and derelict governors do not.
Thank you.
The White House
- Contact: White House
- Press Office
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