Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace didn’t get the chance to confront White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany directly this weekend. So Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade did it for him.
About halfway through her appearance on that show Tuesday morning, Kilmeade brought up a comment McEnany made during her Friday press conference. “Boy, it’s interesting to be in a room that desperately wants to seem to see these churches and houses of worship stay closed,” she told reporters, some of whom objected in the moment to that blatant condescension.
As Kilmeade put it, “Some of the press got insulted,” before reading McEnany part of what Wallace said about her comments on his Sunday show.
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“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,” Wallace said. Kilmeade left out the part where Wallace said that in his six years covering the White House he “never saw a White House press secretary act like that.”
“Were you questioning the religious beliefs of the press?” Kilmeade asked her directly.
“No, I never questioned the religious beliefs of the press,” she insisted, before adding, “Many of our journalists are great men and women of faith.”
McEnany said her comments were merely trying to draw attention to the fact that “it was a bit peculiar” that she was asked so many questions about why the Trump administration was pushing to reopen churches across the country during a pandemic. “I’ve never been asked why a liquor store was essential,” she added.
Of course, while Wallace likely would have thrown a few follow-up questions at McEnany’s nonsensical answer, the Fox & Friends hosts moved right along to the next topic.