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Press Briefing by Kayleigh McEnany 11/20/2020
PRESS BRIEFINGS
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany | 11/20/2020
Issued on: November 20, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
12:10 P.M. EST
MS. MCENANY: Good afternoon, everyone. The beginning of the end of the pandemic started with the leadership of President Trump. In recent days, Pfizer and Moderna reported the highly successful results of their vaccine development, each achieving a COVID vaccine that is over 90 percent effective. We know Moderna is 94.5 percent effective; Pfizer 95 percent. That is extraordinary.
{snip}
And with that, I’ll take questions.
Kevin.
Q When are you going to admit you lost?
MS. MCENANY: Yes, Kevin. Yeah.
Sorry. Mario.
Q Okay. Thanks, Kayleigh. What is the President planning to discuss this afternoon with the two Michigan lawmakers? And will he ask them to have the state legislature appoint electors who will support his re-election? What’s the nature of that meeting?
MS. MCENANY: So he will be meeting later on. This is not an advocacy meeting. There will be no one from the campaign there. He routinely meets with lawmakers from all across the country.
Q When will you admit you lost the election?
Q Kayleigh, at what point does the President concede the race and allow for a proper transition to the Biden team?
MS. MCENANY: So, right now, there’s ongoing litigation. There are — what we know: 74 million Americans that voted for this President; that’s more votes than any President has gotten in history. It’s really extraordinary. And there are very real claims out there that the campaign is pursuing — 234 pages of affidavits publicly available in one county alone; that’s Wayne County. And two individuals in the canvassing board there that have declined to certify.
So these are real claims. These individuals deserve to be heard. This was a system that had never been tried in American history: mass mail-out voting. It’s one that we have identified as being particularly prone to fraud. So those claims deserve to be pursued.
Tamara.
Q Yeah. Has anyone from the White House spoken with GSA — with the director of GSA about the timing of ascertaining who the next President will be? And has any pressure been applied to her?
MS. MCENANY: Absolutely not. GSA will make the determin- — determination of ascertainment at the right moment. Right now, there’s a constitutional process that’s being played out. There are questions being asked in court. But the GSA will determine when ascertainment is reached.
Q And can I just ask one other question, which is: Senator Lamar Alexander, today, has put out a statement encouraging the Trump administration, in the absence of ascertainment, to begin allowing the Biden team access — full access to everything they need for a transition, access to agencies, access to real-time data. What’s the harm in doing that?
MS. MCENANY: So there’s a Presidential Transition Act that determines exactly what an administration needs to do in advance of an election. And we have done everything statutorily required, and we will continue to do that.
Q It’s after reelection, though.
Q Thank you. I have a question. First, a follow-up on the transition. Has the President or anyone in the administration instructed officials not to engage or have conversations with members of the Biden transition team?
MS. MCENANY: No, I’ve certainly never been instructed that. I’ve never heard of an instruction to that end.
{snip}
MS. MCENANY: Yes.
Q So, back to the topic of concession. Like we said earlier, is there something that the President needs to see before making that call? Is it the end of these lawsuits, whenever they do wrap up, all of them? States certifying results for different counties? Or December 14th when the Electoral College casts its ballots?
MS. MCENANY: Look, the President, again, is pursuing ongoing litigation and taking it day by day, and we’ll wait for that litigation to play out.
Q So just to clarify, it’s the end of that litigation that we would need to see before getting a call —
MS. MCENANY: There’s an entire constitutional process of electors casting their ballots, and I will leave that to the President.
Yes. Chanel.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. Contrary to the court of media opinion, there is real-time data showing vast irregularities in the voting system that we have watched over the last few weeks. I asked this question of the campaign and I ask this of it now, the White House: Where is our FBI in this entire scheme? Are they looking at any of the evidence that this White House or the campaign have presented in terms of real-time data evidence of voter irregularity? Where is the FBI?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, you know, I would refer you to the FBI on that — to the DOJ on that. There’s —
Q Has the President spoken with the FBI in the last three weeks?
MS. MCENANY: Not that I’m aware of. But, look, I would say that there are real questions on mass mail-out voting. We have put those questions forward, and we’ve said this for the better part of a year. There was a bipartisan commission that talked about and identified the real potential for fraud with mass mail-in voting.
Also something that I would note is just we talked a lot about transfer of power in the election, and it’s worth remembering that this President was never given an orderly transition of power. His presidency was never accepted. In fact, before the election — his election, we know Crossfire Hurricane was launched by Peter Strzok to pursue baseless allegations about the President’s ties with Russia. That’s before he was President, trying to subvert the will of the American people.
We know, in August, Peter Strzok wrote a text message about an insurance policy against a Trump presidency, once again trying to silence the voice of the American people.
In 2016 — we know in October that there was a FISA warrant — a FISA warrant taken out to spy on the Trump campaign. And then the American people spoke, and they spoke commandingly in electing President Trump despite all of the odds.
And what happened after he was elected? You had 70 lawmakers say “we’re not coming” to his inauguration — Democratic lawmakers. You had Elizabeth Warren saying “we’re going to attempt to obstruct” the Trump transition by urging the Government Accountability Office to investigate the incoming Trump transition.
In January of that year, you had President Obama have a by- the-book meeting where they talked about the Logan Act, using that act to go after Lieutenant General Michael Flynn.
Just before the inauguration, you had BuzzFeed promoting and publishing this bogus Steele dossier that’s been widely debunked.
And then, for two years, you had the baseless Mueller investigation, which searched for collusion, found none, and exonerated President Trump.
While, in 2016, President Trump became the duly elected President, many sought to undermine him, discredit him, delegitimize him, and deny his victory. There were no calls for unity; there were no calls for healing.
So while every legal vote is counted, let us not forget the inexcusable transition, or lack thereof, that President Trump had to endure in 2016 and four years into his presidency.
Thank you, everyone, for the very good and substantive questions today.
Q Kayleigh, why can’t you call on all of us? You haven’t taken questions —
MS. MCENANY: I don’t call on activists.
END
12:26 P.M. EST
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany | 11/20/2020
Issued on: November 20, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
12:10 P.M. EST
MS. MCENANY: Good afternoon, everyone. The beginning of the end of the pandemic started with the leadership of President Trump. In recent days, Pfizer and Moderna reported the highly successful results of their vaccine development, each achieving a COVID vaccine that is over 90 percent effective. We know Moderna is 94.5 percent effective; Pfizer 95 percent. That is extraordinary.
{snip}
And with that, I’ll take questions.
Kevin.
Q When are you going to admit you lost?
MS. MCENANY: Yes, Kevin. Yeah.
Sorry. Mario.
Q Okay. Thanks, Kayleigh. What is the President planning to discuss this afternoon with the two Michigan lawmakers? And will he ask them to have the state legislature appoint electors who will support his re-election? What’s the nature of that meeting?
MS. MCENANY: So he will be meeting later on. This is not an advocacy meeting. There will be no one from the campaign there. He routinely meets with lawmakers from all across the country.
Q When will you admit you lost the election?
Q Kayleigh, at what point does the President concede the race and allow for a proper transition to the Biden team?
MS. MCENANY: So, right now, there’s ongoing litigation. There are — what we know: 74 million Americans that voted for this President; that’s more votes than any President has gotten in history. It’s really extraordinary. And there are very real claims out there that the campaign is pursuing — 234 pages of affidavits publicly available in one county alone; that’s Wayne County. And two individuals in the canvassing board there that have declined to certify.
So these are real claims. These individuals deserve to be heard. This was a system that had never been tried in American history: mass mail-out voting. It’s one that we have identified as being particularly prone to fraud. So those claims deserve to be pursued.
Tamara.
Q Yeah. Has anyone from the White House spoken with GSA — with the director of GSA about the timing of ascertaining who the next President will be? And has any pressure been applied to her?
MS. MCENANY: Absolutely not. GSA will make the determin- — determination of ascertainment at the right moment. Right now, there’s a constitutional process that’s being played out. There are questions being asked in court. But the GSA will determine when ascertainment is reached.
Q And can I just ask one other question, which is: Senator Lamar Alexander, today, has put out a statement encouraging the Trump administration, in the absence of ascertainment, to begin allowing the Biden team access — full access to everything they need for a transition, access to agencies, access to real-time data. What’s the harm in doing that?
MS. MCENANY: So there’s a Presidential Transition Act that determines exactly what an administration needs to do in advance of an election. And we have done everything statutorily required, and we will continue to do that.
Q It’s after reelection, though.
Q Thank you. I have a question. First, a follow-up on the transition. Has the President or anyone in the administration instructed officials not to engage or have conversations with members of the Biden transition team?
MS. MCENANY: No, I’ve certainly never been instructed that. I’ve never heard of an instruction to that end.
{snip}
MS. MCENANY: Yes.
Q So, back to the topic of concession. Like we said earlier, is there something that the President needs to see before making that call? Is it the end of these lawsuits, whenever they do wrap up, all of them? States certifying results for different counties? Or December 14th when the Electoral College casts its ballots?
MS. MCENANY: Look, the President, again, is pursuing ongoing litigation and taking it day by day, and we’ll wait for that litigation to play out.
Q So just to clarify, it’s the end of that litigation that we would need to see before getting a call —
MS. MCENANY: There’s an entire constitutional process of electors casting their ballots, and I will leave that to the President.
Yes. Chanel.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. Contrary to the court of media opinion, there is real-time data showing vast irregularities in the voting system that we have watched over the last few weeks. I asked this question of the campaign and I ask this of it now, the White House: Where is our FBI in this entire scheme? Are they looking at any of the evidence that this White House or the campaign have presented in terms of real-time data evidence of voter irregularity? Where is the FBI?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, you know, I would refer you to the FBI on that — to the DOJ on that. There’s —
Q Has the President spoken with the FBI in the last three weeks?
MS. MCENANY: Not that I’m aware of. But, look, I would say that there are real questions on mass mail-out voting. We have put those questions forward, and we’ve said this for the better part of a year. There was a bipartisan commission that talked about and identified the real potential for fraud with mass mail-in voting.
Also something that I would note is just we talked a lot about transfer of power in the election, and it’s worth remembering that this President was never given an orderly transition of power. His presidency was never accepted. In fact, before the election — his election, we know Crossfire Hurricane was launched by Peter Strzok to pursue baseless allegations about the President’s ties with Russia. That’s before he was President, trying to subvert the will of the American people.
We know, in August, Peter Strzok wrote a text message about an insurance policy against a Trump presidency, once again trying to silence the voice of the American people.
In 2016 — we know in October that there was a FISA warrant — a FISA warrant taken out to spy on the Trump campaign. And then the American people spoke, and they spoke commandingly in electing President Trump despite all of the odds.
And what happened after he was elected? You had 70 lawmakers say “we’re not coming” to his inauguration — Democratic lawmakers. You had Elizabeth Warren saying “we’re going to attempt to obstruct” the Trump transition by urging the Government Accountability Office to investigate the incoming Trump transition.
In January of that year, you had President Obama have a by- the-book meeting where they talked about the Logan Act, using that act to go after Lieutenant General Michael Flynn.
Just before the inauguration, you had BuzzFeed promoting and publishing this bogus Steele dossier that’s been widely debunked.
And then, for two years, you had the baseless Mueller investigation, which searched for collusion, found none, and exonerated President Trump.
While, in 2016, President Trump became the duly elected President, many sought to undermine him, discredit him, delegitimize him, and deny his victory. There were no calls for unity; there were no calls for healing.
So while every legal vote is counted, let us not forget the inexcusable transition, or lack thereof, that President Trump had to endure in 2016 and four years into his presidency.
Thank you, everyone, for the very good and substantive questions today.
Q Kayleigh, why can’t you call on all of us? You haven’t taken questions —
MS. MCENANY: I don’t call on activists.
END
12:26 P.M. EST
