Trump aide advances on press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. It's false and opportunistic.

Trump aide advances on press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

It's false and opportunistic.

Alyssa Farah Griffin

Donald Trump's former communications director

told a House committee on January 6 that Kayleigh McEnany, Trump's last White House press secretary, was "false and opportunistic."

Griffin was questioned

about McEnany's "downfall" after the 2020 election

• specifically whether he "fell" into a camp "hello we lost

• let's go out gracefully" versus "let's facilitate the big lie"

• that Trump's defeat at the hands of Joe Biden was caused by electoral fraud.

Griffin said

I'm a Christian woman :

• so I'll say this. Kylie is false and opportunistic

• Griffin currently works at ABC.

• She added that McEnany was "not stupid" and a "smart woman."

She knew we lost the election

but she calculated that she wanted to live a certain life after Trump that required staying in his luck. This was more important to her than telling the truth to the American public. "

McEnany has repeatedly spoken about whether

or not she is lying while working with Trump.

She pledged to be

honest with the US press

when she first took the stage

at the White House in May 2020.

• "Do you pledge never to lie to us from that podium?" A reporter asked.

• I will never lie to you. McEnany replied, "You have my word on it.

• She reiterated that, while serving as press secretary, she had "never lied".

McEnany also published

a book called For Like Time as This:

My Faith Journey Through the White House and Beyond

a memoir that has been heavily edited. According to the book

she never lied to reporters :

• in part because of her education at Oxford

• Harvard and Georgetown

• which allowed her to always rely on honest

• well-sourced and well-thought-out information."

McEnany also addressed the Committee on 6 January.

In its report last week, it stated that "part" of its testimony "seemed evasive."

"In multiple cases, McEnany's testimony was almost as candid as that of

her press office staff, who testified about what McEnany said."

The Committee also noted that McEnany

contested allegations that

President Trump was reluctant to

condemn the violence and urged the Capitol crowd to act peacefully as they drafted his tweet at 2.38 pm on January 6...

Sarah Matthews, one of her deputies, claimed to have done so. Received infringing information from McEnany to the Select Committee.

While McEnany and Griffin worked for Trump

• Griffin told the committee that she did not confront McEnany

• adding that she "got her Fox News post.

• Griffin left the White House in December 2020.

I knew better

but it turned out to be what I always planned.

Griffin also discussed the unregulated operations of

the White House under Trump

which she referred to as "the most egregious organization I've ever worked in"

that is, those with the closest hierarchy of employees.

She claimed that Mark Meadows, the last chief of staff appointed by Trump to manage access to the president, was a "true believer" until the end.

"I was seeing press assistants in the president's personal dining room 

and I don't know how they got there," Griffin told the committee. 

A very junior staff member is a press assistant.

There are many accounts of

senior staff trying to restrict Trump's access.

According to a book by Stephanie Grisham

who served as Melania Trump's longtime aide and McEnany's predecessor as press secretary, one press secretary, in particular, drew Trump's attention.

I began to notice that he was unusually interested in

a very attractive young press hour on my team...

What I know is that he acted inappropriately.

Since the woman worked with me, Grisham wrote

she tried to protect her and keep her extraordinary interest in her under wraps.

In order to "look at her ass

Trump allegedly ordered one of his subordinates to

bring the woman to the office cabin of Air Force One

according to Grisham.

Grisham claimed

she was about to report this behaviour to Melania Trump

but refrained because she "didn't claim anything

happened between the president and that woman."

Even if he wanted to

she said, it was hard for him to do it even if he wanted to.