Trumps new spokesperson says she won’t lie

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s new spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, vowed on Friday not to lie to reporters from the podium as she made her debut at the first White House briefing by a press secretary in more than a year, foreign media reported.

“I will never lie to you,” McEnany told reporters. “You have my word on that.” But the briefing that followed included several misstatements and mischaracterisations nonetheless.

McEnany, who joined the White House last month, took the stage behind a podium that had quite literally been collecting cobwebs before the president began the practice of holding his own daily briefings because of the coronavirus. McEnany said she spends most of the day with the president and is “constantly with him, absorbing his thinking.” She said she sees it as her “mission to bring you the mindset of the president, deliver those facts, so this president gets fair and accurate reporting and the American people get fair and accurate information.”

The White House has long made the case that the briefings are less important in the Trump administration because the president is so accessible, answering reporters’ questions on an often-daily basis.

Trump had been holding his own daily briefings through much of the pandemic, but scaled back this week amid concerns that he was doing himself political damage and as the White House tries to pivot toward a focus on reopening.