White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Sunday took to Twitter to respond to Jake Tapper's claims that she continually "lies" and that's why he refuses to give her air time.
"Did you feel like there were diminishing returns because you weren't getting the truth?" CNN's Brian Stelter asked Tapper about having Trump allies on the network.
"Well, there were some people that were such, they're so mendacious I just wouldn't put them on air," Tapper replied with a shrug. "Kayleigh McEnany, I never booked her. Jason Miller from the Trump campaign, I would never book him. These are just people who just tell lies the way that most people breathe. There was no value in that."
Tapper said there was a distinct difference between McEnany and Kellyanne Conway.
"She was a senior adviser to the president. She was more of a filibusterer and a subject changer than a lie," he explained. "I think that's different. I really do. And I think there's a risk in lumping everybody together. There's a big difference between someone like Kayleigh McEnany, who like, this is just what she does, she tells lies all the time. She can't acknowledge reality. So I'm just not going to put somebody like that on air."
.@jaketapper tells @brianstelter why he does not have @kayleighmcenany on his show: She tells "lies the way that, you know, most people breathe. There was no value in that...She can’t acknowledge reality. So I am just not going to put somebody like that on air." pic.twitter.com/c4kFvRFPYo
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) December 27, 2020
The press secretary took to Twitter to reply directly to Tapper, saying the CNN anchor is "lobbing baseless personal attacks" without providing a shred of evidence. She also slammed the media, and CNN in particular, for various lies, including the Russia collusion narrative.
This is a therapy session for a broken network, and @jaketapper is lazy enough to participate by lobbing baseless personal attacks, with ZERO evidence.
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) December 27, 2020
Jake’s real problem:
I do not leak.
I do not lie.
But I DO call out the lies of the media (i.e. CNN Russia collusion hoax!) https://t.co/Gz0RWbwhJZ
If Tapper doesn't want to book McEnany because he believes she "lies," that's fine. That's his prerogative. That's the direction he chooses to take his show. And he has that right. But he can't say he's being fair and balanced or a straight news anchor when he's giving this opinion on the press secretary. If he's going to admit to refusing to have her on his show then he should provide countless examples of where she "lied." Otherwise, this is just a personal smear.