WATCH: Kayleigh McEnany Spends Entire Briefing Dodging on Trump’s Support For Confederate Flag and Attack on Bubba Wallace
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany faced an avalanche of questions on Monday as she tried to defend President Donald Trump’s statements in support for the Confederate flag.
As McEnany opened up the briefing to questions from the press pool, NBC’s Peter Alexander immediately confronted her over Trump’s tweet in which he called the Bubba Wallace noose controversy a “hoax,” called for Wallace to apologize, and claimed NASCAR’s viewership has fallen as a result of the incident, as well as the organization’s decision to ban the Confederate flag.
“Why is the president so supportive of flying the Confederate flag?” Alexander asked. When McEnany sidestepped the question, Alexander asked again and honed in on Trump’s statement on the flag.
“You’re taking his tweet completely out of context,” McEnany answered. Alexander retorted that “the president said NASCAR saw bad ratings because they took down the Confederate flag. Does he believe NASCAR should fly the Confederate flag and why don’t they flight here?”
McEnany answered by repeating her claim to Fox News that Trump was making a point to slam the media’s “rush to judgment” on the noose controversy. ABC’s Jon Karl later drilled down, asking McEnany if Trump thinks it was “a mistake” for NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag.
“You are focusing on one word at the very bottom of the tweet,” McEnany complained. “That is completely taking it out of context and neglecting the complete rush to judgment.”
CBS’ Paula Reid also joined the fray shortly after, and she grilled McEnany on why Trump is demanding an apology from Wallace when the African American racecar driver acted upon NASCAR’s announcement at the time for what they found in his garage.
This back and forth went on with Reuters’ Jeff Mason reading Trump’s tweet back to McEnany and asking her how exactly reporters were misinterpreting the president’s words. The press secretary eventually started complaining about how many questions she got on the matter, to which, the press pool responded that she has not answered any of the questions.
Watch above, via Fox News.
