Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany pledged to not lie. It didn’t final lengthy.

Kayleigh McEnany’s first briefing as White Home press secretary began off on a hopeful notice — with a promise from her to not lie. That lasted for about all of 15 minutes.

“I’ll by no means deceive you. You might have my phrase on that,” McEnany stated early throughout the briefing, in response from a query from the Related Press’s Jill Colvin.

It’s a regular query White Home reporters ask new press secretaries, and one that’s hardly ever, if ever, lived as much as totally. Nevertheless it took all of two questions for Trump’s fourth press secretary to interrupt that promise.

McEnany’s first lie from the White Home podium got here in response to a query about feedback President Donald Trump made earlier within the day characterizing Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegation in opposition to Joe Biden as “way more compelling” than the accusations made in opposition to Supreme Court docket Justice Brett Kavanaugh throughout his affirmation hearings. Requested to flesh out Trump’s pondering, McEnany characterised the Kavanaugh allegations as “verifiably false.”

“I feel it was a grave miscarriage of justice with what occurred with Justice Brett Kavanaugh. There’s no want for me to convey up the salacious, terrible, and verifiably false allegations that had been made in opposition to Justice Kavanaugh,” she stated.

However that’s a lie. As an alternative of being “verifiably false,” a number of accusations in opposition to Kavanaugh had been discovered to be credible throughout the course of an investigation performed by the New York Occasions that was revealed final fall, roughly a 12 months after his affirmation to the courtroom.

That wasn’t the one lie McEnany instructed throughout her first briefing. Requested about newly launched FBI notes concerning the investigation of former Nationwide Safety Adviser Michael Flynn that Trump and White Home officers has been hyping as proof that Flynn was “set up,” McEneny misquoted what the paperwork say to make them sound extra incriminating than they’re.

“We now have a handwritten FBI notice that claims, quote, we have to get Flynn to lie, quote, and get him fired,” she stated.

However the notes don’t say that. All they reveal is that earlier than a January 2017 interview with Flynn, one investigator wrote down, “What’s our aim? Reality/admission or to get him to lie, so we will prosecute him or get him fired?” It’s essential to needless to say on the time, the FBI had already gathered proof that Flynn had damaged the regulation. The notes do point out investigators went into the interview with the aim of manipulating Flynn into mendacity, as McEnany steered.

There was extra. Requested later why the general public ought to discover the sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to Trump from greater than 20 girls much less credible than the one in opposition to Biden, MeEnany stated that “the president has swiftly denied all of those allegations that had been raised 4 years in the past.” Whereas most of the allegations in opposition to Trump had been made in 2016, E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of rape simply final 12 months.

McEnany then concluded the briefing by reiterating her lies about the Flynn notes.

If her first outing is any indication, MeEnany could find yourself being much less hostile with reporters than Sarah Sanders. She could also be much less gaffe-prone than Sean Spicer. She could also be extra obtainable to the general public than the not too long ago departed Stephanie Grisham, who by no means held a press briefing, making Friday’s the primary one held by a White Home press secretary in additional than a 12 months.

However like her predecessors, McEnany will use the White Home briefing room to inform lies — even proper after she guarantees reporters she received’t.

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