For Such a Time As This—Behind the Scenes at the Trump White House With Kayleigh McEnany

Summary

---

The Charlie Kirk Show

Episode: For Such a Time As This—Behind the Scenes at the Trump White House With Kayleigh McEnany

Date: June 18, 2021
Guest: Kayleigh McEnany, former White House Press Secretary

---

Episode Overview

In this episode, Charlie Kirk sits down with Kayleigh McEnany, the former White House Press Secretary for President Donald Trump, to discuss her tenure during one of the most turbulent times in American history. The conversation covers McEnany’s personal journey into politics, the challenges she faced at the White House podium, her approach to handling a hostile press, the role of faith in her professional life, and her new book “For Such a Time As This.” Throughout, both Kirk and McEnany critique media bias, recount behind-the-scenes details from the Trump White House, and offer advice for young conservative women.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Kayleigh McEnany’s Personal and Professional Journey

• Early Interest in Politics:
  • Kayleigh recounts her unique childhood interest in politics, starting as a second-grader cheering for Bob Dole.

    “I was a young girl who loved politics...I was a bit peculiar. I was a second grader, like doing cheers for Bob Dole on the playground.” (02:32 – Kayleigh McEnany)

• Path to Press Secretary:
  • She describes receiving the surprising offer from President Trump during lockdown:

    “I remember getting a call...and so this is President Trump...he said, do you want to be my press secretary? And it came out of nowhere. And I said, well, of course I do.” (03:38 – Kayleigh McEnany)

2. Taking the Podium During a Crisis

• Starting Mid-Pandemic:
  • Kayleigh notes she took the role on April 13th, 2020, at the pandemic's height and with 400 days since any formal press briefing by a secretary.
• Preparing for Briefings:
  • She leveraged her academic experience at Oxford and being the sole conservative on CNN’s panels:

    “The pummeling you get on those panels prepares you for the White House press briefing room...So you always had to have your facts. And that’s how Binder developed.” (06:34 – Kayleigh McEnany)

• The “Binders” System:
  • McEnany implemented detailed research “binders” to ensure accuracy and confidence under pressure.

3. The Double Standards and Activism of the Media

• Comparing Press Secretary Experiences:
  • Kayleigh contrasts the gentle questions the Biden administration received (“How is the White House cat?”) with the combative inquiries posed to her.

    “The questions I found that were posed to the Biden administration were, how is the White House cat? … I was asked, is the president happy the South lost the Civil War?” (07:40 – Kayleigh McEnany)

• Media Bias and Sympathetic Coverage:
  • Both Kirk and McEnany cite examples such as coverage of Hunter Biden, the Lafayette Square narrative, and COVID-19 origins.
• Vindication on Multiple Issues:
  • Kayleigh argues that later revelations showed the Trump administration told the truth on several stories initially denied by the press (09:32).

4. Going “On Offense” Against the Press

• Fact-Checking Reporters:
  • McEnany describes her “offense only” approach, challenging activist journalists directly.

    “When they ask me about a tweet of mine, I’m going to fact check some of their headlines in real time.” (10:26 – Kayleigh McEnany)

• Labeling Journalists as Activists:
  • She recounts calling out Kaitlan Collins and Jim Acosta for crossing lines into activism, not journalism.

    “I said to her, hey, why didn’t you call on me? And I yelled back, I don’t call on activists.” (12:15 – Kayleigh McEnany)

5. Media, Big Tech, and Election Interference

• Distrust in Media:
  • McEnany cites data showing Americans’ low trust in the press—and points to collusion with Big Tech, notably the suppression of the Hunter Biden story.

    “When big media colludes with big tech, that’s where it becomes highly problematic.” (14:55 – Kayleigh McEnany)

• Consequences:
  • She refers to polls indicating potential voter shifts if the Hunter Biden story were widely reported.

6. Inside the White House: Leaks, Loyalty, and Challenges

• Comparison to Biden Administration:
  • Kirk and McEnany note near-constant leaks during Trump’s tenure versus the discipline surrounding President Biden.
• Internal Dynamics:
  • McEnany describes a rare leak targeting Vice President Harris as possibly signaling White House internal dynamics.

    “It’s interesting to see the White House leaking against the Vice President. It makes you curious about the dynamic…” (18:06 – Kayleigh McEnany)

7. Kayleigh’s Book and The Role of Faith

• Book Announcement:
  • Title: For Such a Time As This: My Faith Journey through the White House and Beyond
  • Focus: Behind-the-scenes White House moments and the sustaining power of Christian faith.

    “God puts everyone in a certain place in a certain time for a reason and a purpose. I think I was at the podium for a reason...” (19:04 – Kayleigh McEnany)

• Faith Under Fire:
  • Kayleigh shares anecdotes about finding peace through prayer, especially before briefings, and the spiritual battle she witnessed in D.C.

    “The day of my first press briefing… I was in tears at 2 o’clock… But Sarah Sanders sent me a picture of her Jesus calling from two years prior to the day… I had complete serenity when I got to that podium.” (20:42 – Kayleigh McEnany)

8. Behind the Scenes: Press Briefing Prep

• The Daily Routine:
  • Kayleigh reviews hundreds of news alerts, collaborates with her small team (notably Julia Hahn and Chad Gilmartin), and anticipates every possible question.

    “I wanted to overwhelm them with information...there’s this idea that there’s like 600 people prepping these things…Well, you just told me. Is that you have…a core team of two and a pretty decent-sized team to go brief 40 million people daily.” (28:40 – 30:14)

• Press Briefings as High-Stakes Events:
  • The mental and emotional intensity is compared to a war room, with prepared prayers before facing the media barrage.

9. Crime, Culture, and the Conservative Message

• Key Issues for the Future:
  • Focus recommended on law and order, rising crime in Democrat-run cities, and an “inclusive economy” message, emphasizing Trump’s gains with minority voters. (31:33 – Kayleigh McEnany)
• Critique of Progressive Governance:
  • McEnany and the hosts argue that left-wing policies undermine quality of life, referencing the situation in New York City.

10. Advice for Young Conservative Women

• Be Bold:

  “Number one, be bold when you speak…You are speaking for a lot more people than you know…others not only will follow you, but will appreciate your voice.” (33:15 – Kayleigh McEnany)

• Work-Life Balance:

  “You don’t have to sideline that for your career. You can do both. It’s never a wrong time to have a baby, to get married, to do those things in life…I decided in the middle of a presidential campaign, what better time to have a baby?” (33:42 – Kayleigh McEnany)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Media’s Priorities:

  “I was asked, is the president happy the South lost the Civil War? That was literally one of the questions.”
  — Kayleigh McEnany (08:08)

• On Activist Journalism:

  “When you are shouted down by a Playboy reporter in the back of the room…where are the other reporters…pushing out someone…who is making us all look like buffoons?”
  — Kayleigh McEnany (13:09)

• On Preparation:

  “I knew I had the preparation…I had gone to Oxford…you always have to have footnotes…Then I went to CNN where I was an eight-on-one conservative.”
  — Kayleigh McEnany (05:52)

• On Faith and Press Briefings:

  “I was in tears at 2 o’clock when I was supposed to take the podium…Sarah Sanders sent me a picture of her Jesus Calling [devotional]…I had complete serenity when I got to that podium.”
  — Kayleigh McEnany (20:42)

• On Her Approach:

  “Offense only. I’m tired of playing defense…we’re going to fact check the press.”
  — Kayleigh McEnany (10:26)

• On Balancing Career and Family:

  “You can have it all…It’s never a wrong time to have a baby, to get married…best decision I ever made.”
  — Kayleigh McEnany (33:42)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:28 – Kayleigh’s early interest in politics
• 03:38 – Getting the White House call from President Trump
• 05:52 – Development of the “binder” system for press briefings
• 07:40 – Contrasting press treatment: Trump versus Biden
• 10:26 – Her “offense only” philosophy
• 12:15 – Calling out activist reporters
• 14:55 – Public distrust in media and Big Tech collusion
• 19:04 – Book announcement and faith journey
• 20:42 – How prayer helped her through high-stress moments
• 28:40 – Daily preparation process for press briefings
• 31:33 – Conservative focus moving forward: crime, culture, and economy
• 33:15 – Advice for young conservative women

---

Final Thoughts

This episode provides an in-depth look at what it was like to serve as White House Press Secretary under constant adversarial scrutiny, punctuated with McEnany’s reflections on media bias, faith, and the lessons she hopes to pass on. Listeners gain a sense not only of the intensity of the role but also of the foundational attitudes and values that guided her leadership and life.

---

Transcript

[Charlie Kirk]

Hey everybody. Today on the Charlie Kirk show, Kayleigh McEnany, former White House press secretary, good friend of mine, an exclusive conversation about her time in the White House. If you enjoy this interview and you want to see more of them, go to charliekirk.com support and support us. We talk about Turning Point USA throughout the episode. If you want to get involved with Turning point, go to tpusa.com, maybe you're a high school or college student. And if you're a young conservative woman, text this episode to your friends. This is a role model for you. It's an eye opening episode about the inner workings of the White House, the double standards of the press, and quite honestly, the lack of morality that exists amongst the activist news corps. I love this episode.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

I want to thank those of you

[Charlie Kirk]

that make it possible when you Support [e-mail] support Become a monthly supporter today to continue our goal to reach millions of young people. Buckle up everybody. Here we go. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

I want you to know we are

[Charlie Kirk]

lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

[Unidentified Supporter/Guest]

I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point usa.

[Charlie Kirk]

We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives. And we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here. For many Americans, Father's Day is a day to celebrate. For many others, it's a day to get through. Because Father's Day hurts. If you don't have a father, the facts are clear. Fatherlessness drives many bad outcomes in America. From teen pregnancy to incarceration. An astounding 85% of youth in prison come from fatherless homes, 20 times the national average. There's a path forward from the grim statistics. That's why I urge you to order a powerful new film called the Streets Were My Father. It features the journey of three inner city Chicago men from fatherlessness to gangs and from life in prison to prison ministry programs that set them on the road to redemption as lives as productive members of society. To see this important and inspirational film, the streaming version and DVDs, go to SalemNow.com and buy a copy or copies. For anyone you know who doesn't have a father or doesn't believe in the power of God to change lives, go to SalemNow.com that's SalemNow.com

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

hey, everybody.

[Charlie Kirk]

Welcome to this very special episode of

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

the Charlie Kirk Show.

[Charlie Kirk]

We with us today is a friend of mine that I've known for quite a while.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yes.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

All the way back from Varney and Company Days on Fox Business Network. That's right, Kayleigh McEnany. Kayleigh, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Thank you. Good to be here. I love you.

[Charlie Kirk]

Thank you.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

I think you have spoke at every single young women's leadership summit.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yes, I have. And I've loved every moment. I mean, I was a young girl who loved politics. I was a bit peculiar. I was a second grader, like doing Cheers for Bob Dole on the playground. So it was a bit of an oddity at second grade. And I never knew there were other women like me who love politics and wasn't so much of an oddity. I was just a young woman who was motivated by politics. And to see these young women who remind me of myself, it's just really cool. I wish I would have had this outlet back when I was young.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Well, you're, you're probably the most demanded speaker here. And so it is going to be packed and packed and packed. And we put you at the last day for a reason. So no one would leave early, but. So let's walk. There's a lot of things I want to explore with you. First, just tell our audience your story because it's pretty amazing from, from getting into politics and then becoming press secretary for the White House. And not just press secretary, I don't know, during normal, boring times. No, you were press secretary during lockdowns, Virus Fauci, the race issue during every, I mean, you were press secretary during probably one of the most people would say chaotic moments in American history.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yeah, I think it's certainly the most chaotic aberrational period in American history. There's no doubt. I mean, I'll never forget getting the job we had all locked down. I was actually locked down in Florida. Not so bad to be locked down at the beach, I will say that. But we were crossing a bridge. And I remember getting a call and you've gotten a call from the White House. I'm sure it's like an odd set of numbers. And I answered. And so this is President Trump. And normally he would call me and just say, oh, good job. On a media interview. I was with this campaign at the time. But instead he said, do you want to be my press secretary? And it came out of nowhere. And I said, well, of course I do. And he said, mark, get it done. And presumably that was Mark Meadows who had just taken the job. And, you know, it took a few weeks, but I ended up getting the job. And it was just absolutely incredible to think about taking the podium. During COVID 19Americans didn't know what this virus was like. There's a lot of misinformation out there by St. Anthony Fauci and others. And it was a pretty cool experience. I had to lean on God quite a bit because I couldn't have done it myself.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

So what date did you take over the press secretary position?

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Oh, that's a good question. I know it was, I think it was April 13th, I believe. Yeah.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

So that's right in the middle of all of this.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Right in the middle, yes. Yes. A few days before my birthday. And I went in and they were doing these Covid task force briefings. You probably remember them. The President flanked by Fauci and Burke's and others. And I came into that. I didn't know if I would ever give a briefing. It had been 400 days since there had ever been a briefing from a press secretary. And then one day he just looked at me and said, kaylee, start briefing. And I thought I would have, you know, a week or so to prepare. And he said, do it before Friday. And this was on Thursday. So I had about a 24 hour period, but we got it done.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

So the normal succession to become press secretary is you work in kind of the White House press shop as deputy press secretary. This is not that there's not anything normal or whatever, it's just that. And then you kind of see how these briefings work. But you came from the campaign, if I remember correctly, which was not necessarily low profile, lots of TV experience and all that. And then you get put right into this. President Trump says, just go do it now. For someone who allegedly hates women, they find that really bizarre.

[Charlie Kirk]

Like, you know, go represent our entire

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

government, please, on the biggest stage imaginable. And you handled yourself as such, Grace. And you start, you came up with this amazing thing, the binders. Tell us about the binders and the tabs of all the research.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Well, thank you. And you know, yes, certainly that is the case that you're normally deputy press secretary and you, you know, kind of get some institutional knowledge. The only institutional knowledge I had was when I was an intern during the Bush era. And, you know, that that wasn't really deep institutional knowledge. There was a learning curve. And I knew that coming into the job. But, you know, I knew I had the preparation. I had gone to Oxford for A year. They have a tutorial system where you read your paper out loud and then the tutor grills you. So you always have to have footnotes. You always have to have facts and be on your toes. And then, of course, I went to cnn where I was a eight on

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

one conservative, one conservative with those ridiculously long panels. So they had to, like. They had to, like, pan out and they're like, well, somewhere over there is our conservative.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Exactly. And the pummeling you get on those panels prepares you for the White House press briefing room, I think more than any time being a deputy press secretary could. So you always had to have your facts. And that's how Binder developed. You know, I got the first draft that my team gave me and I said, guys, where are the footnotes? Where are the stats? And my team was great. And they quickly rose to the occasion. But, you know, I just demanded the same kind of statistics and, you know, work that I. That I did at Oxford and at cnn. And I had a great team around me.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

So there was 400 days without a press kind of briefing, is that right?

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yes. So they had the coronavirus task force briefings, but it had been 400 days since not my predecessor, Stephanie Grisham, but my predecessor before that, Sarah Sanders. So we had been through another secretary, not had a briefing. And I took the podium for the first time after 400 days. A lot of pressure.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

You had ravenous wolves of members of the press, like, finally. But then they met their match. And so how does it. This is not a question I ask often, but Barack Obama gets asked this question. How does it make you feel when you see how easy the current press secretary has it?

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Oh, it's incredible. Look, I mean, I just was. Yesterday or a few days ago, I was looking through some of the questions from my press briefings, and I just wanted to compare the two side by side. You know, a straight objective comparison. And the questions I found that were posed to the Biden administration were, how is the White House cat? How did the dog. Was Biden's dog involved in a biting accident? Is, you know, is he okay? He was asked, how does it. Or Jen talk? He rather was asked, how does it feel for Biden to sit in the Oval Office?

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

That's exactly.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

And then I was asked, is the president happy the south lost the Civil War? That was literally one of the questions

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

I was asked from Yamichi.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

No, it wasn't Yamiche. It was actually Ryan Lizza.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Oh, that's. That's right on par.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

That is Right on par.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

I would just love to have seen, which never would have happened, how the press would have reacted If Donald Trump Jr. S text messages would have come out filled with the N word. Do you think you would have gotten a question about that?

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Oh, there's no doubt about it. There's absolutely no doubt. And to watch the press bury this just like they did the Hunter Biden story during the campaign, and to see how they were wrong about Lafayette Square. To see how they were wrong. You know, they said the president cleared protesters with tear gas to take a photo. That was never the case. I told them that, but they didn't believe me at the time. Now we know the truth. The IG Report came out same on the origins of COVID and a lab. The president was right on that. Russian bounties. He said there was not Russian bounties on the heads of Afghan soldiers or, excuse me, American soldiers in Afghanistan. He was right about that, too. And we told them the truth, and they never believed us. It's amazing. There's been a lot of vindication since I left.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Yeah. In the last year, it's been a full propaganda campaign to try to remove Trump. And quite honestly, it worked. And it's too bad, because so many Americans are just programmed to kind of live in this place of comfort of the information that's provided to them. And it was. That's just the beginning of it. Then the hydroxychloroquine stuff, which has been proven to be right.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Exactly.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And the lockdowns, which has been proven to be right. And almost every single one of these things which was called, like, you're a bad person, this is a conspiracy theory. Sit down and shut up. All of a sudden, now is really. The media is either forced to admit or there's some sort of study that shows that they were wrong. And the Lafayette park one is another good example. The loser in Suckers one from the Atlantic story. We weren't even allowed to talk about the Hunter Biden story. And I asked people this question. I said, do you think. Do you think that Tony Bobulinski is a household name? Or why is Michael Cohen a household name and not Tony Bobulinski?

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Right.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And that's because we have an activist press that literally just cares about destroying not just Donald Trump, but his entire political movement. And so a lot of people then get cynical when they start to hear this kind of. This kind of pattern. They don't feel like, oh, we won, we're on the right side of the argument. They're like, no, we Knew this early. How are people supposed to process this?

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Well, we've got to fight back with the truth. Yeah, it is easy to get cynical. You're exactly right. But we've got to hold them accountable. And that's what I tried to do from the podium on offense. My dad said when I went into the administration, come up with a phrase that you want to encapsulate your tenure. And I said, offense only. I'm tired of playing defense. I'm tired of watching Republicans get one version of stories, one set of headlines, and Democrats getting another. And we're going to fact check the press. So when they ask me about a tweet of mine, I'm going to fact check some of their headlines in real time. And that's the kind of attitude, as Republicans, I think we must have, because you're right. Tony Bobulinski, of course, Hunter Biden's business associate. I said to the press, hey, guys, do me a favor, watch the Tony Bobulinski interview. They agreed. They watched. And I said, what do you think? And this is at the height of the campaign. They go, it was interesting. That's it. Crickets. It was interesting. And now we know the Hunter Biden story was real, as Hunter is under federal investigation.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And I mean, these people are, and I have to really be careful saying this. I don't. But I don't actually think these are good people. I don't. I mean, I mean, they are. They were so nasty to you. They were so mean to you. They were so awful to our country. And then I have to see the way they treat Jen Psaki. They're asking Jen Psaki, so what's your thought on whether or not Joe Biden thinks that President Trump's gonna get indicted or not? Wait, hold on a second. What, wait, what's his thought on whether

[Charlie Kirk]

or not a former.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

What kind of crazy question is that?

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Right.

[Charlie Kirk]

How about this?

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

How about the crisis on the southern border? Are you gonna hold China accountable for the lab leak? How about the 1 million Muslims in concentration camps? How about rising inflation? No, no. Instead of the line of questioning is, what is the current president's opinion on something that's happening in the state of New York? It. And so you have some insight into the press. And I don't want you to get into intentions and all this. I know it's a, that's really hard because it's all speculation, but it seems as if that they really are activists, they're not journalists, and they're really in the, in the business of Personal destruction.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

That's right. Look, there are definitely a set of reporters in the press corps, and I could probably count them on one hand, maybe two, who are good reporters. And I've had one of them came up and, you know, in a hushed tone, said to me on the tarmac, I come from the old school of journalism and kind of recognize that it has changed for the worse. And then you have people, and you're right to call them activists like Kaitlan Collins, like Jim Acosta, who are activists. And I said that much from the podium. I said one. Caitlin said to me, hey, why didn't you call on me? And I yelled back, I don't call an activist because at a certain point, we've got to call out their activism, not engage in that kind of activism, because it's destructive. When you are shouted down by a playboy reporter in the back of the room at the end of each briefing, and where are the other reporters, the good reporters, saying, hey, we're going to come together in the White House Correspondents association and push out someone like the playboy reporter who's shouting from the back of the room and is making us all look like buffoons.

[Charlie Kirk]

Look, can I tell you something that really bothers me? When good people get scheduled for cancellation for no reason, that's what's happening to Mike Lindell. I was just with Mike Lindell with 15,000 my closest friends in Wisconsin, and Mike Lindell was hosting an entire event, and the media went after him like you wouldn't believe. And they're trying to take my pillow out of every single store. Mike Lindell is a good person. And if you need pillows, maybe you're moving in for college or maybe you want to build a pillow palace, go to mypillow.com and always use the promo code Kirk. Remember, they won't go flat. You can wash and dry them as many times as you want, and they maintain their shape. They're made in the United States. For a limited time, Mike is offering his premium MyPillows for his lowest price ever. You can get a Queen size premium MyPillow for $29.98, regularly $69.98. So if you love America and you want to support the good guys, go to mypillow.com and click on the radio

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

listener square and use promo code Kirk.

[Charlie Kirk]

You also get deep discounts on all MyPillow products, including Giza Dream Seats and MyPillow Mattress Topper. MyPillow.com promo code Kirk. If you love America and you Want to support the guys that are trying to do everything they can to save it. Go to mypillow.com, buy a bunch of stuff, promo code. Kirk so the way a lot of

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

people view the media right now, our listeners, obviously, they totally think it's, you know, a broken and corrupt institution. And I'm not really sure the right way to fix it, to be honest. And just because they seem that they have all this power and they want to use the power to keep themselves in charge, which is really dark and awful. And there's so many stories, they could actually win awards if they actually went and investigated right now, but they decide they don't want to do do that instead. I think there was a massive story recently on whether or not Donald Trump had his pants on backwards or forwards or the cicada that fell on Joe Biden's neck. These were the major stories of the last couple of last couple days.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

It's crazy. And I mean, we've gotten to a point where 79% of independents, this was midway through Trump's presidency of independence. These are not Republicans said that they believe that the press intentionally makes up fake stories and intentionally reports them. So, so the good news is people recognize it. Edelman Trust Barometer trust. Different gauges, the trust of different institutions. They found the media is at their lowest point of trust. So the American people are wise to this. They do see the headlines. They are smart. But when we you get to a point where big media colludes with big tech, that's where it becomes highly problematic. There was a poll out recently that I think it was 1 in 6 Biden voters would have changed their vote had they heard about the Hunter Biden story. They you talk about influencing election. There's simply no doubt that Twitter and big media and big tech altogether influenced an election.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

It was the most interfered with election in American history. And I mean, the fact you could suppress the New York Post story because we don't like what they have to

[Charlie Kirk]

say, even though it ended up being totally true.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And then, oh, that was another lie. That this was somehow Russian intelligence, right? And by the way, not only that, last year we went through two impeachments, right? We went through one in Ukraine and the other one was ridiculous. And we had to go the whole phone call thing. Then a couple months later, we had to deal with the whole virus and the lab leak and this. If the Democrats actually wanted to permanently sever the country, they're doing a great job.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yes, they are. But the point to Russian disinformation This is where it becomes so laughable that anyone with a brain cell can see through the antics of the press. You know, Politico, I believe it was published, 50 intelligence officials who said that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russia disinformation. Well, the average American says, I'm hearing about Russia an awful lot. I'm hearing about Russia collusion that didn't exist. Now this is Russia disinformation. It's always Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia. So they're not even good at their job at avoiding reporting because they just point to Russia. And people see through that. Especially now in the wake of us knowing it is Hunter's laptop. Where even now some people are saying, well, do we truly know it's Hunter's laptop? I'm pretty sure if it has hundreds of pictures of Hunter, text messages of Hunter, emails. Yes, without clothes on. Emails from Hunter, email. It is indeed Hunter's laptop.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

No, we know it's Hunter's laptop. It's been third party corrupt. They've never denied it.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yep.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And there's also information and phone numbers that are corrupt. There's a lot of forensic analysis that's been done on this.

[Charlie Kirk]

We knew this back in October.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

It's so simple.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yes.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And. But the media saw this as a threat. And at all costs, they needed Donald Trump gone. Donald Trump stood in their way of every single one of their very, very treacherous schemes. And so what are people supposed to do to consume information and hold powerful people accountable? Because, I mean, I only know like one or two people that work in the White House. You remember working in the White House, and a lot of my friends did. It was nonstop leaks, non stop pressure from the Washington Post and New York Times, nonstop. It was as if they were sitting in the meeting with Trump, you know, in the Oval Office, and they would find out what happened quicker than even someone who's working in the EOB would.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yeah.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And there's no such pressure right now happening on the Biden White House. I have not seen one leak. I don't know. I know like one person working there. It's Ron Klain.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yeah, well, they're very disciplined, there's no doubt about that. And Ron Klain, they call him President Klain.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

He really is running our government.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

He is running our government. Yeah. But there's. They did have one leak recently, which was really interesting. Kamala Harris, when she had that disastrous trip down to Guatemala and Mexico. There was interestingly, and I noticed it too, because you're right, there have been no leaks. But there was finally a leak of people within the White House saying that was a weird trip. And I'm paraphrasing here, why can't she even answer a simple question? And it's interesting to see the White House leaking against the Vice President. It makes you curious about the dynamic, cuz we finally got a leak and it's against the Vice President. So it seems like maybe there are some knives out between the VP's team and the President's team.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Yeah. And I mean it's just, it was nonstop during the Trump era and they would turn staffers against each other and they threatened stories. None of that is happening right now. And that kind of internal dynamic actually hurt the Trump administration's ability to govern the country for the wellbeing of all the citizens. But the activist press doesn't care about any of that. They're very much sociopathic people. So you have a book coming out. Tell us about that.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

I do. I'm really excited. This is, I guess the second time I'm talking about. I talked about it at the Young Women's Leadership Summit. I was so excited to announce it here. But it's called for such a time as this. My Faith Journey through the White House and Beyond and Esther. Yes, exactly. And that comes from the Book of Esther. You're exactly right. And it occurred to me that should be the title because when I was going up to dc, I was very nervous, almost in tears, and my dad said, kaylee, you know, maybe you were made for such a time as this. And interestingly, a Democrat commentator sent me the exact same phrase and it just stuck out in my head that, you know, God puts everyone in a certain place in a certain time for a reason and a purpose. I think I was at the podium for a reason for a purpose in that time. And I think everyone who reads this book has a purpose they're designed to fulfill and they just have to find it. So it'll be about my journey through the White House. There will be some cool behind the scenes moments like when the President of the United States got COVID 19, the most serious threat to the presidency since Reagan was shot. I'll take you into those scenes, but it'll also be about my faith journey and how I leaned on Jesus Christ during those times.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Amazing. So is it available for pre order yet or.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

It is, yes.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Well, that's the most important thing.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

The Amazon link is up, so you just google my name and for such a time as this. And we'll do a cover reveal in about two weeks. But the pre order link is up and it will be out December 7th.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Yeah, it'll do very well.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Thank you.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And so talk more about your faith and how important that was in the White House. We live in an increasingly secular society. I believe there's a massive spiritual battle happening in our country right now. And there's a lot of people that were praying for you and praying for your success. Talk about the role of your faith. When you worked in the White House,

[Kayleigh McEnany]

you could certainly feel those prayers. I will say Sarah Sanders, who came before me, she used to tell me she's wonderful. She told me that before each press briefing she would read her Jesus Calling book, a devotional. And she. The day of my first press briefing, people didn't know this, but I literally, my mom and dad can attest, was in tears at 2 o' clock when I was supposed to take the podium because I was paralyzed with nervousness. But Sarah Sanders sent me a picture of her Jesus calling from two years prior to the day. And it was the perfect message about overcoming through faith in Christ. And I had complete serenity when I got to that podium. And it wasn't anything about me, it was the prayers of so many Christians that I could feel. And you're exactly right about the spiritual battle playing out. And I, I saw it each and every day. Like when, when the president got COVID 19, you'll remember they dubbed the Amy Coney Barrett nomination a super spreader event. Well, what some people haven't pieced together is Franklin Graham was there that day. They were doing the big prayer march through Washington. And Franklin Graham and some of the greatest pastors of our time were in the White House meeting with the President. So you have COVID 19, the invisible enemy lurking in this super spreader event, while you have these pastors who represent all things good and Christians praying through D.C. and it was just such a clear juxtaposition of good being there, but evil lurking in our midst. But the good news is Christ can overcome all. And I get into that chapter by chapter.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

It's amazing. I want to just re emphasize this. So you have a press briefing. This is not like a regular speech. I just want to have people understand this. So you have this. You're literally sitting on top of each other because of the way the White House configuration is. And there's like this sliding door and you walk out and you have probably 30 or 40 rather high IQ, hyper aggressive wannabe celebrities with masks on, so all you see is their eyes. And you walk up to this podium and you're looking down at them and they're staring at everything you do. And then you have probably 15 or 20 cameras, and you know that there's 30 or 40 million people that will watch this. And then you have precisely what you have to say. And then you have to defend things that you didn't say on behalf of a bureaucrat or on behalf of an appointment. And if you say one word wrong, it could derail the entire mission of the federal government in the midst of a pandemic. But they don't care because that's success for them.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yeah, that is.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And then so you have to be precise throughout the entire thing. You have to be interesting. And then you also have to be able to answer the, you know, the questions from the opposition. And then you have to then be able to know your stuff. Because if you quote one thing wrong, it becomes. That becomes the story. Not all the benefits from all that.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yes. And even if you do everything right, they will still take you out of context.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

That's exactly right.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

I remember I literally gave an answer. I believe this was to Yamiche. I forget exactly who, but I talked about the science being on the side of reopening schools. I went through data, I said, the CDC director said kids are minimal sports spreaders, that they're not at risk from COVID the same way adults are. And I read statistics and facts in science. And I said with the science should not stand in the way of opening schools because the science is on our side. Did everything right. Jim Acosta takes the science should not stand in the way, tweets it out as if to suggest I just said science doesn't matter, when in fact, I had footnoted my answer with all of this science. And even Jake Tapper had the audacity or I guess the courage to call him out. Not particularly a fan of Jake Tapper, but even Jake Tapper said, guys, we're taking her out of context here. Which was a kind thing for him to do. But even when you do everything right, they will take a snippet, they will twist it for their own purposes and design.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

It's the highest stakes imaginable, and it's rather remarkable. And it just in the way that there's no comparison to what's happening right now. This is not a press briefing. This is a lunch with friends, which what's happening with Jen Saki? That's not a press briefing. This is like an interrogation coupled with kind of like a war briefing. It's this really weird. It's like really bizarre. In the sense that it really doesn't exist anywhere else in the country.

[Charlie Kirk]

And you kind of just look at it like, oh, she's just kind of giving a speech. No, you have to understand it from

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

her actual visual optical perspective. Every time you look up from that podium, you have 30 really, like, treacherous people that are staring at you, waiting for one thing. And you know that it's not just them, but they represent outlets that they

[Charlie Kirk]

could push a button.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And every single Apple device in the country gets an Apple news notification.

[Charlie Kirk]

Kayleigh McEnany says, this, this, and this.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And then you kind of get off the podium. You get off the podium, that sliding door closes. And you ask your team, so how'd I do? Everything was great.

[Charlie Kirk]

It was awesome.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And then you look at like, that's

[Kayleigh McEnany]

not what I said exactly. Yes, there were many moments like that when I'd go back to my office and I'd say, that is not what happened. But people can see it, especially people who watch the briefings in their entirety. But that's why it's so important, important to anticipate the questions and anticipate counter arguments and be prepared. How can I take this and go on offense? And it was interesting. We would plan questions going from Sunday, 7am all the way to the briefing. And we would often identify a much harder question than any of them even asked. And we're like, how did they not think to ask this question? This is the toughest one. But sometimes they never quite got there. But all of this to say, the purpose of the press briefing is, is to bring news to the American people. And what was so sad to me during my time, there were children dying in the streets, like Sequoria Turner and Legend Talafaro. And we in the government were doing things to fight crime in the streets. And when I tried to bring that message, they didn't care. And when I talked about the police officers who have perished amid the riots, David Dorn. They didn't care. And I'm not just. I'm not saying they didn't care. Like, they're not compassionate people, but they didn't care enough to write a story about it, to ask a question about it. And therein is the problem with the press. If your narrative, a child dying of crime in the streets, doesn't fit the left's narrative, it is just entirely ignored outside of local news. And to me, that is the real tragedy. At the end of the day, it's those families, those victims that end up losing because there's never light brought to their Stories.

[Charlie Kirk]

Did you ever read the fine print that appears when you start browsing in incognito mode? It says that your activity might still be visible to your employer, your school or your Internet service provider. How can they even call it incognito? To really stop these people from visiting from seeing the sites you visit, you need to do what I do and use Express vpn. Think about all the times you've used the WI fi at a coffee shop, a hotel, or even at your parents home. Without ExpressVPN, every single site you visit could be logged by the admin of that network. And that's still true when you're in incognito mode. What's more is your home Internet provider, I'm talking about Comcast, AT&T or whatever, can also see and record your browsing data. ExpressVPN is an application that encrypts all of your network data and reroutes it through a network of secure servers so that your private online activity says just that. Private ExpressVPN works on all of your devices and it's super easy to use. So stop letting strangers invade your online privacy. Protect yourself at expressvpn.com Charlie use my link at expressvpn.com Charlie that's E-P-R-E-S-S VPN.com Charlie to learn more.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

So as if you didn't have enough on your plate, you also were the press secret during the race stuff and that's what you're getting at. And from the George Floyd stuff to the riots to the burning and all that. And they did. I mean that was when the press went from, you know, we really want to take you down to a whole nother level of. And you navigated that perfectly and seamlessly. And, but they were of course trying to, you know, do what, do what they do.

[Charlie Kirk]

So I want to ask you a

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

question that you might not have been asked before. A lot of people say, Charlie, I get sick to my stomach before I speak. I have to give a presentation. How did you overcome kind of just the, the, the, not just the nerves but the anxiety? Like what was, what was your day to get you actually physically in a place to be able to do that?

[Charlie Kirk]

Because that's not easy.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

I mean, I know when you speak and you have a lot of eyeballs on you, you got to be, you got to be right in that strike zone. Walk us through kind of the crescendo of the day that got you to be where you were at 2pm every day.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

So if we had a press briefing on a Monday, let's say I would read through, I get hundreds of news alerts that come to my phone, in my email, and I would read, read through every single news alert, every single headline, and make a list of topics that my two closest aides were Chad Gilmartin and Julia Hahn. And they would do the same.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Julia Hahn.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Julia's incredible. She's brilliant.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

She used to work for Breitbart, I think.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

She did. She did. She's brilliant. And we would sit down and come up with a list of topics, and we would run through every single potential hardest question we could be asked. Julia would send me a draft binder

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Starting at like 7am this we.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

The day before we even.

[Charlie Kirk]

Oh, wow.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

And I would look through the draft binder, make notes, Google statistics, facts. I wanted to overwhelm them with information. Um, and the next day we'd start at maybe seven or eight, and we'd start running through the questions, reading through the binder, preparing, preparing, preparing. And then I'd go to the bathroom, oftentimes get on my knees and say a prayer. Or if I didn't do that, my team, we would all. In my office, last thing we would do, we would get in a circle and there's a guy named Ben Williamson who worked for the chief of staff. Started calling him Reverend Ben and then Pope Ben as the briefings got harder because he would always pray with us. That was the last thing we did as a team before we walked out. And I think it worked. It gave. Gave us a lot of peace in the. In the tough moments.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

And so I hope everyone understands that because there's this idea that there's like 600 people prepping these things and there's these massive war rooms. And there's like, you research that and you do that and you research that as if, you know, you have kind of like the 24 CTU thing. You remember 24. Jack Bauer, of course, the double decker with all the data analysts. Well, you just told me. Is that you have. You had a core team of two and a pretty decent sized team to go brief 40 million people daily.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yes. So our press team. Exactly. We had like, I think it was 10 to 12 on the press team. 10 to 12.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

There's more people writing the Colbert every night.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

That's true. Literally, there are. Literally.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

There are more producers for late night comedy than producers to put on a press briefing.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yes. But these are. These are high quality people. I would take Julia and Chad and Julia's team of, I think she had seven or I shouldn't. She had four people. I would take that team any day over the Colbert staff.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Oh, no, for sure.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

The Ellen staff, all the staffs combined. Because she's, she's such a high talent person, as you know. You met her.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Yeah. And it's just an incredible juxtaposition. So let's talk about where the country is right now. Kind of in closing. A lot of people are losing hope. A lot of people are wondering what's next. Do you have any insight into what President Trump might be thinking of doing? I've talked to him recently. He seems like he's in good spirits. Do you have any insight of what he might be doing?

[Kayleigh McEnany]

I don't, I don't. I've talked to him recently too, and he is in good spirits. We'll see, you know, what he decides in 2024. But in the media term, 2022 and he's back out there. It was great to see him. I believe he was in North Carolina and I think more on the horizon for him, it sounds like in terms of rallies and getting our majorities back, that's the focus, laser focus right now.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Yeah. Georgia and Arizona in particular. And so can you just speak to kind of what some of are that you think we need to be focusing on to try to win back these majorities and also just try to win people over to the conservative message.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Look, I think certainly the culture issues are very important. You know, people, I was just watching Fox and Friends and they were talking about them getting rid of holidays and calling them days off in our school, you know, we're talking about not canceling people. They try to cancel anyone in Trump world, now they want to cancel apple pie. I mean, these kinds of issues, people realize the insanity of it. But in addition to that, I think really crime on the streets, the fact that crime is going up in all of these Democratic strongholds, the fact that, you know, a little boy, Aiden, loses his life and shot in his car seat and he says, mommy, my tummy hurts and is a victim of murder there. And there are so many other examples. You know, I think that that's really important that we put a focus on that. Law and order, safety. New York City is, is literally crumbling right now. I go there often and it is crumbling. So we gotta focus on securing our streets and, and an inclusive economy message. You know, President Trump got more of the black vote, more of the Hispanic vote than his predecessors did. And he did that by having an accessible economy and focusing on issues that

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

American people care about crime and culture. I think those are the ones. I mean, and what's so sad about New York is that they actually did this themselves. It was a safe city. It was an enjoyable city. And they decided to be ideological, not pragmatic. They decided to go try to defend some ridiculous esoteric idea instead of actually what works for their citizens. And now people are dying and it's more dangerous than ever. So final thing, for women out there that are listening, either on radio or podcasting, it's harder than ever to be a young conservative woman out there. You are the role model for that and for good reason. Also a mother and a wife and a follower of God and Jesus. What advice, what are the big takeaways do you have for young conservative women in particular?

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yes. Well, that's very kind. I mean, number one, be bold when you speak, even if others don't, you know, stand up and applause in your classroom, applaud in your classroom. You are speaking for a lot more people than you know. You know, there are silent professions of I support you. I support you on Harvard Law campus when I was there. So if you are courageous enough to speak up and be bold, others not only will follow you, but will appreciate your voice. But number two, don't. If you want to be a mother and a wife, not every woman desires that. But if you have that on your heart, you don't have to sideline that for your career. You can do both. You can have it all. It's never a wrong time to have a baby, to get married, to do those things in life. I decided in the middle of a presidential campaign, what better time to have a baby? But I did it and it was the best decision I ever made. So just know you can have it all. You can have a high powered career. You can be a mother and a wife if you so choose and desire.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

I love it. Well, for such a time as this is the book, we're gonna have you back on to promote it throughout. But Kayleigh, God bless you. Thanks so much for coming on.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Thank you. An amazing job with Turning Point. It's such an honor to be here and to speak.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Thanks.

[Charlie Kirk]

Thanks so much for listening everybody. Email us your thoughts. Freedom. Charliekirk.com if you want to get behind us and our program, go to charliekirk.comsupport and get involved with Turning Point [e-mail] God bless you guys.

[Unidentified Male Host/Interviewer]

Speak to you soon. For more on many of these stories and news you can Trust, go to charliekirk.com.