In her first interview since becoming the spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee (RNC), former CNN contributor Kayleigh McEnany talked to Sirius XM host Alex Marlow on Breitbart News Daily on Tuesday, during which she stressed the importance of Republicans unifying behind President Trump’s agenda.
Marlow pointed out that, unfortunately, most of the key items from Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign are stalled in Congress. He asked what the RNC can do to clear away these legislative jams.
McEnany replied that disappointed Republican voters should “stay tuned.”
“Tax reform is coming,” she promised. “A family making $55,000, you’re going to see close to $5,000 back in your pocket each year. That’s coming. That’s right around the corner.”
“Obamacare was a blip. We need to revisit it,” she continued. “It needs to happen. We need to make good on that promise. But tax reform is coming.”
“The RAISE Act, which we know American wages have suffered, we’ve had this vast influx of immigration over time – well, we’re going to help those wages,” she promised. “It’s going to come in the form of the RAISE Act.”
“Yes, it’s been six months. There isn’t a major repeal of Obamacare yet, a replacement, but all of that’s coming,” she said. “We’ve got to keep in mind that for President Obama, it took more than a year – nearly a year-and-a-half – to pass Obamacare to begin with. Let’s give President Trump that time,” she urged.
McEnany said President Trump has “done a great job already,” referencing his executive actions and recent good economic news.
“Give him some time because I guarantee you in the next few months, going into next year, we’re going to see tax reform. We’re going to see the RAISE Act. We will see major legislative victories. But it takes time,” she noted.
Marlow responded by noting that influential Republican Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has already declared that “the RAISE Act doesn’t have a chance in hell” of passing Congress.
“That’s something that a lot of us find, even if he’s right, we find it very counterproductive that you have Republicans going out and taking shots at key pieces of legislation,” he told the new RNC spokeswoman.
“Everyone’s going to have a different opinion,” McEnany conceded. “You will have people who publicly dismiss it. We’ve seen that from the beginning, going back to Obamacare. But we have a president who, behind the scenes, is going to get the job done. He’s picking up the phone. He’s making calls.”
“You know, President Obama was in many ways an absentee president,” she contended. “He was not good at picking up the phone and negotiating. But we have a president who is an expert negotiator, and we have a president who is going to pick up the phone and put the pressure on some of those Republicans who are pushing back on the RAISE Act.”
“That’s what it takes because publicly you might have some people who speak out against it, but we have a president who, behind the scenes, will make a difference,” she said.
Marlow asked McEnany about her new “Trump TV” project, a series of videos designed to bypass the mainstream media and bring President Trump’s message directly to the American people. “You’re getting a lot of hostile response from the media, which I think is fantastic,” he said.
“It’s rather interesting to me. You have a lot of media pushback on this, and really what it was are sharing facts – actual, hard facts,” McEnany said. “You’ll notice in the pushback very little of it is the facts or the substance of what this broadcast said.”
“It’s an effort to put forth what the president is doing and the positive successes in his administration,” she said. “You never hear about ISIS being on the run or the Veteran Accountability Act or MS-13. You might hear an inkling here or there in the media, but these are things the American people want to hear. They want to hear what their elected leader is doing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and all too often, you hear about Russia, but not about border crossings being down.”
“It’s an effort to offer another set of facts that supplement what’s being said in the media, which is oftentimes falsehoods,” she charged. “It’s an effort to put out there what’s going on and give the American people the substance that they want to hear, but you don’t hear in the media. It’s been lambasted, but what I find interesting is that no one is attacking the factual substance of it. They’re just attacking the fact that someone is getting through and telling the American people what’s happening in their White House.”
Marlow also noted that charges of “propaganda” leveled at McEnany’s videos are foolish because her perspective and biases are clearly stated in advance, and there is nothing illusory or deceptive about the productions.
“It’s not propaganda at all,” she agreed. “It’s very clear that that was a news broadcast coming from Trump Tower. It had Trump behind it in the background. It is being marginalized as propaganda, which it’s not. It’s just an effort to give the people facts.”
“Have the American people heard that President Trump has rescinded more regulations than any president in American history?” she wondered. “I believe the number is something like 860. He has had 40 pieces of legislation signed. He has 40 executive orders. Are these things you hear in the mainstream media? No, you don’t. They’re facts that aren’t offered because they don’t supplement the mainstream media narrative of negativity.”
“So it’s an effort to give the American people those facts. Ultimately, at the end of the day, they have a vote. They decide which way they want to cast it. But they deserve to hear both sides of the story,” she contended.
McEnany anticipated “more successes” throughout the rest of 2017.
“Look at the economy alone. One million jobs created, consumer confidence a 16-year high, unemployment a 16-year low. You’re going to see robust economic activity, more factories moving back,” she forecast.
“You’re going to see, I hope, more conservative appointments of judges because, to me, that’s the best achievement we’ve had so far, is Neil Gorsuch. You’re going to see more the successes we’ve seen already. You’re going to see more of that,” she said.
“And I really do believe that you’re going to see a major legislative victory,” McEnany added. “President Trump already has had some. The Veteran Accountability Act, I would argue, is a very big one. But you’re going to see a major legislative success. If it’s tax reform, this economy is going to absolutely take off – in a way that it is already, but it’s going to be robust.”
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.