Kayleigh McEnany Responds to Chris Wallace's Criticism of Her Press Briefing: ‘Journalists Are Not Above Being Questioned’

Leah Barkoukis | May 27, 2020 8:40 AM

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany pushed back on criticism she received from her press briefing Friday, including from Fox News’s Chris Wallace, after she took issue with the number of questions she received about churches being considered essential. McEnany then ran through a list of questions she believed the press should be asking.

“I think a lot of people were stunned by that, a lot of people applauded it,” “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade said. “The one thing you did say, you make a comment that some of you don’t care whether these churches open or not, and some of the press got insulted.”

Kilmeade then quoted what Chris Wallace had to say: “Let me just say, Sam Donaldson and me in the Reagan White House, we were pretty tough on the White House press secretaries and we never had our religious beliefs questioned or were lectured on what we should ask.”

Kilmeade then asked her: “Were you questioning the religious beliefs of the press?”

“No, I never questioned the religious beliefs of the press,” McEnany insisted, adding, “Many of our journalists are great men and women of faith.”

“What I was saying was, I was asked 11 questions as to why churches would be allowed to reopen. It was a bit peculiar to be asked these 11 questions in a row. And for the onus and the focus solely to be on why churches are essential, I’ve never been asked why liquor stores was essential," she continued. "So I was merely pointing that out. And to the point about questioning the journalists and asking why they’re asking certain questions, I field hundreds of questions a day. Journalists are not above being questioned themselves. Journalism is a great and noble profession, but there’s been a dearth of journalists asking the real questions for President Obama, the criminal leak of Michael Flynn's identity, who leaked that identity, the dossier which was used to launch a three-year investigation into this president and spy on his campaign. Why aren’t those questions being asked? It’s journalistic malpractice not to ask those questions and I can count on one hand the journalists who are like Maria Bartiromo and Catherine Herridge, but where is the lack of curiosity from the current press corps? There's extreme lack of curiosity at play."