CNN's Jake Tapper says Kayleigh McEnany 'tells lies all the time', WH Press Sec calls his rant 'therapy session'
CNN host Jake Tapper accused White House insiders Kayleigh McEnany and Jason Miller of lying "the way that most people breathe", prompting the White House press secretary to call out the news anchor and his “therapy session for a broken network".
Tapper sparked the feud during an appearance on CNN's 'Reliable Sources' with host Brian Stelter, who asked the former if he felt there were "diminishing returns" in booking President Donald Trump's advisers on air.
“There are some people who are so mendacious, I just wouldn’t put them on air. Kayleigh McEnany – I never booked her,” Tapper responded, adding that he also “would never book” Jason Miller from the Trump campaign. “These are people who they just tell lies the way most people breathe. There was no value in that."
Tapper, however, drew a distinction between booking Kellyanne Conway and the others, claiming “she was more of a filibusterer and subject changer… than a liar, and I think it’s different.”
“There is a risk, in like, lumping everyone together. There’s a big difference between someone like Kayleigh McEnany, which like this is what she does – she tells lies all the time. She can’t acknowledge reality,” Tapper insisted. “I'm just not going to put somebody like that on air.”
The news anchor earned an Emmy nomination in 2018 after a live interview with Conway in 2017 that reportedly went on for 25 minutes after the network had temporarily decided not to book her, The Sun reported. McEnany responded to Tapper's attacks on Twitter, poking fun at the CNN anchor and his “therapy session for a broken network” and for “lobbing baseless personal attacks.”
“This is a therapy session for a broken network, and @jaketapper is lazy enough to participate by lobbing baseless personal attacks, with ZERO evidence,” McEnany tweeted. “Jake’s real problem: I do not leak. I do not lie. But I DO call out the lies of the media (ie CNN Russia collusion hoax!)”
This is a therapy session for a broken network, and @jaketapper is lazy enough to participate by lobbing baseless personal attacks, with ZERO evidence.
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) December 27, 2020
Jake’s real problem:
I do not leak.
I do not lie.
But I DO call out the lies of the media (i.e. CNN Russia collusion hoax!) https://t.co/Gz0RWbwhJZ
CNN’s chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta raised eyebrows earlier this month after he accused McEnany of spreading “disinformation every day" as she walked out of a press briefing, The Wrap reported. “Kayleigh, isn’t it hypocritical of you to accuse others of disinformation when you spread it every day?”
Acosta said after a December 16 press briefing in which she had ripped the media for not paying enough attention to subjects like those involving President-elect Joe Biden’s son Hunter. "Interesting pre-election and post-election coverage, too, on the Hunter Biden scandal, which was not covered at all by many outlets in the lead-up to the election," she said.
"Really interesting turn of events and good for those who covered what was a story all along and not Russia disinformation," McEnany added, as she walked away from the podium. Earlier this month, McEnany lashed out at the media for unfair bias towards herself and other Republican women and called for "civility" toward everyone regardless of their political affiliation.
McEnany's claims came in an interview with The Daily Caller, where she shared how her life had drastically changed once she started working for the Trump administration, noting how she was repeatedly "doxxed" and bullied by the press for the same.