No, a journalist did not call White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany a “liar” at Tuesday’s White House press conference.
This is a story that illustrates how quickly some factions in the country come to conclusions to denigrate members of the press.
On Tuesday, some Twitter users accused Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett of muttering into a hot microphone that McEnany is a “liar.” That simply wasn’t true. As Halkett wrote in a tweet, she actually said to McEnany, after an exchange, “Okay, you don’t want to get involved.”
If you listen to the audio, it is clear that is what he said. And the official White House transcript of the press conference later quoted her saying that.
However, the Twitter controversy reached Fox News’ top-rated shows. Tucker Carlson went on with the story and said, “Did you swear by the White House press secretary? We don’t know.” Uh, yeah, we do, Tucker! She does not. That agrees with * check notes * own White House transcript.
However, Sean Hannity also covered the non-story. He opened his interview with McEnany leading with falsehood. Hannity said his staff was divided “50-50” on whether Halkett made the profane comment. Hannity himself said it was “not entirely clear” what Halkett said and then asked McEnany for his comment. McEnany said his staff was also torn. But McEnany said she would give Halkett the benefit of the doubt, unlike the journalists covering the White House, whom she described as dishonest.
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