Secretary. As a reporter and president of the association, have often advocated a return of regular briefings either White House Press secretary. The merit can be debated, but i think the the whitehas a House Press Secretary job differs. It is also a public servant, whose salary is paid to the taxpayers. Their job is to inform the public. From your standpoint, we are not getting that. I am glad to see that there are briefings taking place, but if you look at the briefings, they are very short events, always almost always less than half an hour. They have fallen into a pattern where there is an opening monologue that is meant to either attack people in that to promote some political issue that the president is harping on. They close it almost precisely the same way. Seems to me that the purpose of the briefing is, one, to promote the president s two,ical prospects, and, to go on the attack against reporters, instead of trying to inform the reporters in that room. Host in your article, in your essay, you point out one exchange in which you are asking the White House Press secretary about the president s between regarding nascar and Bubba Wallace. Lets watch and get your reaction. [video clip] jonathan what is the president s position about nascar banning the Confederate Flag . Sec. Mcenany he said he was not making a judgment one way or the other. The intent of the tweet was to stand up for the men and women of nascar and the fans and those who have gone in this rush to judgment of the media to call something a hate crime when in fact the fbi concluded this was not an intentional recess act, and it very much mirrors other times when there has been a rush to judgment, let say with the covington bullies or jussie smollett. Jonathan lets drill down on the Confederate Flag. Does he say it was a mistake for nascar to ban it . Sec. Mcenany you are focusing on one word at the very bottom of a tweet that is taken out of context and neglecting to complete rush to judgment jonathan he said ratings are down because they banned the flag. That is what he said. Sec. Mcenany the president was noting in aggregate, the men and women who are being demand, called racist, and being accused, and some venues, of committing a hate crime against the individual, those allegations were just dead wrong. Host so, jonathan karl, what is going on there . Guest well, what is not going on there is the press secretary, in good faith, answering a question. You heard me asking a very civil question that i was only asking because the president himself had raised it with a tweet. So what is the president s position on nascar and Confederate Flag . Because it sure looked like, in black and white on the president s twitter feed that he was saying it was a mistake to ban the flag, and it caused nascars ratings to go down. Im taking the president s words out of context, focusing on one word at the end of a tweet. All, it was not one word, and i was not taking anything out of context. I was asking a question. What is the president s position on this . You know, and then she went into an elaborate explanation for the president s tweet that really bore very little resemblance to what was actually said in that tweet. Andy press secretary as they are to answer questions, good and bad, you know, difficult questions, to give a semblance of truth of what is happening. You cannot just go in there and make things up because it sounds better for the president. And, to me, that is what is going on there, it is just one example. I did not even mention, steve, but as he played it again, it is actually it is frankly after allthat even the controversy generated by the president accusing Bubba Wallace somehow,behind a hoax he actually compares him to jussie smollett, who actually was involved in a hoax. I mean, Bubba Wallace did not do anything. Somebody on his team found a news operating as you know the story as a garage pull, and the fbi investigated, nascar investigated. Bubba wallace there is no he did not do anything wrong, at all and you have the spokesperson this is not a campaign person, this is not, you know, a political talking head on a cable tv show, this is the spokesperson for the president of the united states, for the executive branch of our government, to go out and suggest that Bubba Wallace is somehow equivalent to jussie smollett, um i, dont know, you littlet leaves me a speechless, to be honest. [laughs] host midafternoon on tuesday, we received word that the president was going to have a rose garden press terry. We carried it live in its entirety on the network. He spoke for 54 minutes in an Opening Statement and then took about nine guest [laughs] host . What was your reaction to that . Guest well, my reaction to that was i was sitting in the rose garden, watching a political rally come a political stump speech, and i have never seen that before. We often talk about a rose garden strategy for a president running for reelection. It usually means that the president , you know, does a series of official acts that will ultimately help him in reelection, because the people see that the president is out there, you know, doing work on behalf of the american people, but you dont usually see it is usually about avoiding the messiness of the campaign by being above it all and acting as president , but in this case, all the messiness of the Campaign Came right into the rose garden. I thought it was unusual. My back to the briefings, good friend george kahns and i, and i know you know well, a reporter for national journal, a historian for the white house and press relations, and just a really, you know, i think one of the true great reporters in washington, asked a very simple question that today about that speech, noting, saying is there any place at the white house that the president would not engage in politics . That he believes, you know, its kind of sacrosanct, that he would not bring politics into it, and the press secretary george condon, that the hatch act protects the president. He did not say anything about the hatch act. And then wrapped it up by saying you are just upset that the president gave such a great speech in the rose garden. [laughs] again, you cannot just say things because it upsets the president. I think it might have suppressed the following day, steve, when the president held the event on the south lawn, just, you know, steps away from the rose garden, that featured a red pickup truck and a blue pickup truck with massive weights in the back and a big crane lifting the weights off the red pickup truck get it . [laughs] and the crane had a sign saying, trumpet administration. It was this elaborate, again, political event on the white house grounds. President shing engage in politics, that is what it is, they are politicians, but you do not usually see such blatantly political events there on white house grounds, as you know, someone who has spent a lot of time at the white house. Host lets turn to your book, then we will get our viewer and listener calls, because you explain in great detail when you first met donald trump included a photograph and that a headline from the new york host, where you were employed at the time come inside Michael Jacksons honeymoon hideaway. Explain. Guest well, i go way back with donald trump. It is why i wrote this book. It has been an ordinary interaction, extraordinary relationship goes back 26 years now. That first meeting was in 1994. I was a young reporter for the new york post. On the job just a number of months. Rudy giuliani was the mayor, had just gotten elected, and Michael Jackson had just gotten married to Elvis Presleys daughter, lisa marie presley, in secret, and it was revealed that the new couple were actually saying was actually staying at trump tower, in new york, right there on fifth avenue. [laughs] [laughs] storywas an allconsuming in new york, as you can imagine. There were so many people can be and come of that went to trump tower to try to get a glimpse of these famous newlyweds. And Michael Jackson was at the absolute peak of his popularity. The police had to kind of put police tape all around and push people to the other side of the block, camera crews, paparazzi, news organizations everybody was there. So i called up donald trump i did not know donald trump, and he definitely did not know me, but i just called the general number, and i eventually got him on the phone, and i said, i want to do a story about why the most famous newlyweds on the planet decided to start their honeymoon at trump tower. [laughs] and he invited me over, and we spent an hour Walking Around trump tower. He showed me where they were staying, introduced me to their bodyguard, showed me the secret passageways where they could get outside on their own to get outside, showed me his own apartment. It was really a tour de force. I put that photograph in a box 20 years ago when i moved from washington to new york, and when donald trump that elected president , i went frantically trying to find it, and i found it in that box, and i look at it, and i am just amazed at how little he has changed. In my memory of that incident, and i wrote you saw the headline in the close, i wrote, like, five stories inside about what was transpiring. His approach to the media, his approach to, you know, promotion and selfpromotion has not really changed, either. Host lets take your phone calls. Mary is joining us from auburn, new good morning. Andtch all of the briefings today you are acting so nice. Why cant you say anything positive . You come on this show, and you cut this poor woman down. Mediaves facts, which the does not like. Ou know i am right why dont you stop this negative stuff . Guest i do appreciate the question. I have been in that Briefing Room under now 15 different press secretary secretaries. Our job is to ask hard questions. I certainly did that in the last administration, if you just rewind the tape and just watch the questions i ask of barack obama upon press secretarys. We are not there to sit there and praise the president and talk about what a great job he is doing. We are there to report on what is happening. We report on successes and failures. I will Say Something nice, i think kelly is the most Effective Campaign spokesperson that trump has ever had. I think she comes into the room and she is well prepared. She is a very effective spokesperson for trump. My crism
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