REAL News for REAL People
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany - October 1, 2020
Q No, I just wanted to know where - I cover the news, and I like to report accurately in the news. And when the President says, "They found a lot of ballots in a river," I simply want to know where the river is.
MS. MCENANY: No, you simply want to ignore the fact of the matter.
Q I don't.
MS. MCENANY: Again, please -
Q I got asked - I got asked so many questions about this by my Fox affiliates -
MS. MCENANY: - allow me to respond. Allow me to respond.
Q - "Where is this river?"
MS. MCENANY: Allow me to respond to you.
Q And I can't give them accurate information -
MS. MCENANY: Allow me to respond.
Q - and that's why I'm asking you.
MS. MCENANY: This is - 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 under- - I actually don't understand the lack of journalistic curiosity and reporting on this. There used to be -
Q I want to know where the river is.
MS. MCENANY: There used to be curiosity.
Q Where is the river?
MS. MCENANY: 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 and are not ready to scale up in response to the pandemic."
So the media once said -
Q So there is no river?
MS. MCENANY: - mail-in voting is "not ready to scale up" in the middle of a pandemic. Now there's no journalistic curiosity when we're finding Trump ballots -
Q There's no river then?
Q He's asking you about it.
MS. MCENANY: - cast aside. There's no journalistic curiosity when -
Q I'm asking you where the river is, and you can't give an answer.
MS. MCENANY: - 100,000 ballots were sent out in Brooklyn.
Q If you say the President meant a ditch, then say he meant a ditch.
MS. MCENANY: They were inaccurate ballots, and then 100,000 more.
Q I just want to know where the river is.
MS. MCENANY: Shameful filibustering and lack of journalistic curiosity.
Yes.
Q I'm very curious. Where's the river?
MS. MCENANY: Yes.
Q That's curiosity.
Q Kayleigh, Senator Tim Scott said the President misspoke at the debate on white supremacy. Did he misspeak? And has he spoken to Senator Scott?
MS. MCENANY: When the President announced white supremacy and said "sure," no, he did not misspeak.
Q Has he spoken to Senator Scott?
MS. MCENANY: (Calls on the next reporter.) Yes.
Q Has he spoken to Senator Scott?
MS. MCENANY: (Calls on the next reporter.) Yes.
Q Kayleigh, the $1.6 trillion that the administration has floated to Speaker Pelosi, is that the highest topline that the administration is going to go? And Speaker Pelosi also just said that she is expecting a counteroffer from the administration. Is the White House and Secretary Mnuchin preparing one right now?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, right now, we have the $1.6 trillion number, and I'll let you know if that number goes up.
Yes.
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. How does the White House interpret the Pope's refusal to meet with Secretary of State Pompeo?
MS. MCENANY: I have not spoken to the President about that, so I'd have to get back to you on that.
Yes.
Q 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 conflict is going to escalate beyond a regional dispute?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, sorry, back up one second. What was the top of your question there? It was about the - what we just signed?
Q Yeah. There is a statement, I understand, that was put out by Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron, and also Donald Trump that calls for peaceful negotiation.
MS. MCENANY: On Armenia, 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 on 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.
Q Is there though - just quickly to follow up.
MS. MCENANY: Yes.
Q Is there 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?
MS. MCENANY: Um, that's all I have to say on that matter at this time.
Yes.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. I have two questions for you. One about the list of former Trump administration officials who are coming out against President Trump, and supporting Joe Biden is growing. Is the President concerned about these dissidents and what they're talking about?
MS. MCENANY: 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 peddling things that are falsehoods to advance their careers.
Q And I have a question about the Latin vote. What is President Trump's strategy to convince the Latino voters, beyond the Cubans and Catholics, to vote for him? What is the - what is the importance of the Latino vote for him?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, the President believes that he has a lot of accomplishments for the Latino community, in particular, historic low unemployment, a thriving economy, historic high homeownership for Latino men and women in this country. Those are things that President Trump made possible and will bring back in this economic recovery that we're seeing - this V-shaped recovery.
And I'm 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 6 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-shaped recovery is indeed a V-shaped recovery for Hispanic men and women in this - in this country, especially.
Yes.
Q What about his message against immigration -
Q Thank you, Kayleigh.
Q Do you think this could hurt his -
MS. MCENANY: For what? On - oh, no -
Q The message on immigration.
MS. MCENANY: On 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.
Go Back
MS. MCENANY: No, you simply want to ignore the fact of the matter.
Q I don't.
MS. MCENANY: Again, please -
Q I got asked - I got asked so many questions about this by my Fox affiliates -
MS. MCENANY: - allow me to respond. Allow me to respond.
Q - "Where is this river?"
MS. MCENANY: Allow me to respond to you.
Q And I can't give them accurate information -
MS. MCENANY: Allow me to respond.
Q - and that's why I'm asking you.
MS. MCENANY: This is - 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 under- - I actually don't understand the lack of journalistic curiosity and reporting on this. There used to be -
Q I want to know where the river is.
MS. MCENANY: There used to be curiosity.
Q Where is the river?
MS. MCENANY: 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 and are not ready to scale up in response to the pandemic."
So the media once said -
Q So there is no river?
MS. MCENANY: - mail-in voting is "not ready to scale up" in the middle of a pandemic. Now there's no journalistic curiosity when we're finding Trump ballots -
Q There's no river then?
Q He's asking you about it.
MS. MCENANY: - cast aside. There's no journalistic curiosity when -
Q I'm asking you where the river is, and you can't give an answer.
MS. MCENANY: - 100,000 ballots were sent out in Brooklyn.
Q If you say the President meant a ditch, then say he meant a ditch.
MS. MCENANY: They were inaccurate ballots, and then 100,000 more.
Q I just want to know where the river is.
MS. MCENANY: Shameful filibustering and lack of journalistic curiosity.
Yes.
Q I'm very curious. Where's the river?
MS. MCENANY: Yes.
Q That's curiosity.
Q Kayleigh, Senator Tim Scott said the President misspoke at the debate on white supremacy. Did he misspeak? And has he spoken to Senator Scott?
MS. MCENANY: When the President announced white supremacy and said "sure," no, he did not misspeak.
Q Has he spoken to Senator Scott?
MS. MCENANY: (Calls on the next reporter.) Yes.
Q Has he spoken to Senator Scott?
MS. MCENANY: (Calls on the next reporter.) Yes.
Q Kayleigh, the $1.6 trillion that the administration has floated to Speaker Pelosi, is that the highest topline that the administration is going to go? And Speaker Pelosi also just said that she is expecting a counteroffer from the administration. Is the White House and Secretary Mnuchin preparing one right now?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, right now, we have the $1.6 trillion number, and I'll let you know if that number goes up.
Yes.
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. How does the White House interpret the Pope's refusal to meet with Secretary of State Pompeo?
MS. MCENANY: I have not spoken to the President about that, so I'd have to get back to you on that.
Yes.
Q 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 conflict is going to escalate beyond a regional dispute?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, sorry, back up one second. What was the top of your question there? It was about the - what we just signed?
Q Yeah. There is a statement, I understand, that was put out by Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron, and also Donald Trump that calls for peaceful negotiation.
MS. MCENANY: On Armenia, 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 on 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.
Q Is there though - just quickly to follow up.
MS. MCENANY: Yes.
Q Is there 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?
MS. MCENANY: Um, that's all I have to say on that matter at this time.
Yes.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. I have two questions for you. One about the list of former Trump administration officials who are coming out against President Trump, and supporting Joe Biden is growing. Is the President concerned about these dissidents and what they're talking about?
MS. MCENANY: 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 peddling things that are falsehoods to advance their careers.
Q And I have a question about the Latin vote. What is President Trump's strategy to convince the Latino voters, beyond the Cubans and Catholics, to vote for him? What is the - what is the importance of the Latino vote for him?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, the President believes that he has a lot of accomplishments for the Latino community, in particular, historic low unemployment, a thriving economy, historic high homeownership for Latino men and women in this country. Those are things that President Trump made possible and will bring back in this economic recovery that we're seeing - this V-shaped recovery.
And I'm 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 6 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-shaped recovery is indeed a V-shaped recovery for Hispanic men and women in this - in this country, especially.
Yes.
Q What about his message against immigration -
Q Thank you, Kayleigh.
Q Do you think this could hurt his -
MS. MCENANY: For what? On - oh, no -
Q The message on immigration.
MS. MCENANY: On 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.
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