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Press Briefing by Kayleigh McEnany; August 13, 2020
PRESS BRIEFINGS
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany | 8/13/2020
Issued on: August 13, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
1:30 P.M. EDT
MS. MCENANY: Hello, everyone. This is a historic day, and I have here with me Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, Ambassador Robert O’Brien. They’re going to summarize the history that was made today and take a few of your questions. We also have Special Representative Avi Berkowitz here; and Special Envoy to Iran, Brian Hook, who will be in attendance.
MR. KUSHNER: Thank you, Kayleigh. And thank you all for being here.
{snip}
President Trump’s leadership, the ability to build the relationships with the leaders in the region — people were modernizing their society and realizing that we needed a new paradigm.
{snip}
So this is a really great step forward for the region, a great step forward for the country, and a great step forward for the world. And again, I just want to really compliment the three leaders who worked very hard to make this possible: Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi, and President Trump here in America.
Thank you.
MR. O’BRIEN: So, thank you to Jared for that summary. And it’s — it’s been extraordinary work by a number of fine diplomats, working under President Trump’s leadership, to arrive at today’s outcome. Jared Kushner has been at the forefront of those efforts. Avi, Brian Hook, and others have — have put in just — just tremendous work, under the President’s direction, to get where we are here today.
And I know, Jared, you’re not a — you don’t have a diplomat-title or ambassador title, but we don’t have the finer ambassador, especially in the region, than Advisor Kushner. So thank you for those — those remarks and for the really incredible effort.
I want to start by congratulating, today, the President of the United States; the Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu; and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. This is a remarkable achievement, and they’ve been — the achievement is now — will now be known in history as the “Abraham Accords,” or the “Ibrahim Accords” in the Muslim countries, or the “Avraham Accords” in Israel.
{snip}
But I think history is going to remember the President for being a great peacemaker. He brought peace to Israel and the UAE. He has signed a — his diplomat signed a historic accord in Afghanistan. I want to remind people that we haven’t had an American casualty in combat in Afghanistan since February 29th.
He used his offices and his — his pressure to stop Idlib from being overrun in Syria, and brought a ceasefire agreement when — when Turkey had invaded Northern Syria.
A lot of people said that when he came into office that there would be war in North Korea. But through personal diplomacy, he’s — has kept that situation from — from turning into a kinetic event.
So, it’s really remarkable, I think, when you — when you step back and take a look at what this President has done on the peace front. And it wouldn’t surprise me — it’ll take some time in this environment — but it wouldn’t surprise me if the President is eventually nominated for a Nobel Prize for the — this — today’s work is an example of why he would be rightly considered and should be a frontrunner for the Nobel Peace Prize.
{snip}
And, I mean, I’ve — I’ve already been on the phone with a number of European counterparts who have called to congratulate us for our role in — in this accord but who are — some of whom were astounded that this took place.
{snip}
Q Jared, this has already — you guys are telling this as a good step forward. But the Palestinian officials are already out criticizing it. If they aren’t on board, how is this a good peace deal right now?
{snip}
Q And, Jared, if I could follow up on something that you mentioned earlier. You talked about “visionary leadership,” not just in the region, but to — in general, including the President, to make something like this happen. He seemed, actually, fairly positive — albeit maybe cryptically — that may be something soon could happen again to keep this inertia going with perhaps another country.
{snip}
Q And very, very quickly, if I could just follow up with you. You’ve been in the headlines recently. Just to give you the opportunity to respond: Can you tell us why you were meeting with Kanye West? Did you discuss the election at all in any capacity?
MR. KUSHNER: Yeah. So Kanye has been a friend of mine for — I’ve known him for about 10 years. And, you know, we talk every now and then about different things, and we both happened to be in Colorado. And so we got together and we had a great discussion about a lot of things. He has some great ideas for — for what he’d like to see happen in the country, and that’s why he has the candidacy that he’s been doing.
But again, there’s a lot of issues that the President has championed that he admires, and — and it was just great to have a friendly discussion.
{snip}
Q You’ve — you voted by the U.S. mail, the President has voted by the U.S. mail, and many of his top people have voted by the mail. Why is he trying to prevent ordinary Americans from voting by mail?
MS. MCENANY: So, first, let me note, I’ve voted absentee; the President has voted absentee. He’s always been for voting absentee for a reason. What he is not for is mass mail-in voting or — perhaps, to make it even clearer — mass mail-out voting, where everyone on the voting rolls is mailed out a ballot.
Voting rolls in Los Angeles County, for example — you have 117 percent of the county registered to vote. How does that even make sense? It doesn’t. And that would mean that, in the least, 17 percent of the ballots floating around would be subject to potential fraud. So, that’s what the President is standing firmly against, but he has always been for absentee for a reason.
Yes.
Q Kayleigh, we learned today that still roughly 15 and a half million Americans are without a job. Nancy Pelosi spoke yesterday with the Treasury Secretary. Seemingly, there was no progress on that call.
For the 15 and a half million Americans and millions of others who could absolutely care less about the politics of it all, what would you tell them is coming next, considering that it seems as if nothing is moving policy-wise going forward?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, what I would say is this: You know, Secretary Mnuchin said yesterday, “I am willing to move forward with legislation that provides funds to schools, childcare, food, vaccines, hospitals, PPP for small businesses, rental assistance, broadband, airports, state and local government assistance, and liability protection for universities, schools, and businesses.” He’s been unmistakable — this administration has, and this President has. We’re willing to move forward on that.
{snip}
Q The unemployment claims are dipping below —
MS. MCENANY: Yes.
Q — a million. How surprised are you that that’s the figure and the direction we’re going?
MS. MCENANY: I’m not surprised because, under this President — he was the great jobs President once, brought us the greatest economy in modern history once, and he’ll do it again. And this is more evidence of that.
To see unemployment claims dip below a million, coming on the backs of a July jobs report that exceeded expectations; and, of course, the two blockbuster jobs reports before that — it goes in line with the manufacturing ISM good numbers that we saw and many other metrics.
This is the President who’s already making sure we have an economic rebound that outpaces Europe and other countries as well.
{snip}
Chanel.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. Going back to Iran and Russia as geopolitical actors in the Middle East, they have been wellsprings of instability there, as we discussed. But how confident is this White House that Iran and Russia are finally going to be placed in their respective lanes in the advent of this deal and deals to come?
MS. MCENANY: Well, look, we believe that there’s a big contrast here in where this administration stands and the previous administration.
And when you look at the — excuse me — the Obama-Biden admin- — administration, they cozied up to America’s enemies. The Iran deal was egregious. We know that there were cash payouts to Iran. And what this President has done is diametrically opposite: working with our allies, working with Israel, negotiating a historic peace agreement like hasn’t been seen in a quarter of a century.
So, when you work with our allies, when you engage in diplomacy, when you have a great dealmaker as President, you get deals like what we saw today. And it’s stark contrast to what we saw from the previous administration.
Yes.
Q Does the President share former Vice President Biden’s view that annexation would virtually end any chance at a two-state solution that would secure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state and uphold the right of Palestinians to a state of their own? (Inaudible.)
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, so, I’m not going to go any further into the state of Middle East peace. I’d refer you to NSC on that. But today we’re focusing on the historic agreement that’s been made.
Yes.
Q Yeah, is — was the President aware about these two dozen letters between him and Chairman Kim that apparently are going to be published in the new Bob Woodward book? Did he sign off on that?
MS. MCENANY: I haven’t even looked into that, or spoken to him about that. We’re focused, today, on providing relief to the American people and the historic deal.
{snip}
So we encourage for Speaker Pelosi to follow in the footsteps of the suggestion of Congressman Ro Khanna, of her own party, who said, “I think Congress should be in session. I think it’s absurd for Congress to be going on a break during a pandemic and a national crisis.” I can tell you one person who hasn’t been on a break: It’s this President, providing relief for the American people.
Thank you. And he’ll be out here at 5:30. Thanks so much.
END
2:13 P.M. EDT
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany | 8/13/2020
Issued on: August 13, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
1:30 P.M. EDT
MS. MCENANY: Hello, everyone. This is a historic day, and I have here with me Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, Ambassador Robert O’Brien. They’re going to summarize the history that was made today and take a few of your questions. We also have Special Representative Avi Berkowitz here; and Special Envoy to Iran, Brian Hook, who will be in attendance.
MR. KUSHNER: Thank you, Kayleigh. And thank you all for being here.
{snip}
President Trump’s leadership, the ability to build the relationships with the leaders in the region — people were modernizing their society and realizing that we needed a new paradigm.
{snip}
So this is a really great step forward for the region, a great step forward for the country, and a great step forward for the world. And again, I just want to really compliment the three leaders who worked very hard to make this possible: Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi, and President Trump here in America.
Thank you.
MR. O’BRIEN: So, thank you to Jared for that summary. And it’s — it’s been extraordinary work by a number of fine diplomats, working under President Trump’s leadership, to arrive at today’s outcome. Jared Kushner has been at the forefront of those efforts. Avi, Brian Hook, and others have — have put in just — just tremendous work, under the President’s direction, to get where we are here today.
And I know, Jared, you’re not a — you don’t have a diplomat-title or ambassador title, but we don’t have the finer ambassador, especially in the region, than Advisor Kushner. So thank you for those — those remarks and for the really incredible effort.
I want to start by congratulating, today, the President of the United States; the Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu; and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. This is a remarkable achievement, and they’ve been — the achievement is now — will now be known in history as the “Abraham Accords,” or the “Ibrahim Accords” in the Muslim countries, or the “Avraham Accords” in Israel.
{snip}
But I think history is going to remember the President for being a great peacemaker. He brought peace to Israel and the UAE. He has signed a — his diplomat signed a historic accord in Afghanistan. I want to remind people that we haven’t had an American casualty in combat in Afghanistan since February 29th.
He used his offices and his — his pressure to stop Idlib from being overrun in Syria, and brought a ceasefire agreement when — when Turkey had invaded Northern Syria.
A lot of people said that when he came into office that there would be war in North Korea. But through personal diplomacy, he’s — has kept that situation from — from turning into a kinetic event.
So, it’s really remarkable, I think, when you — when you step back and take a look at what this President has done on the peace front. And it wouldn’t surprise me — it’ll take some time in this environment — but it wouldn’t surprise me if the President is eventually nominated for a Nobel Prize for the — this — today’s work is an example of why he would be rightly considered and should be a frontrunner for the Nobel Peace Prize.
{snip}
And, I mean, I’ve — I’ve already been on the phone with a number of European counterparts who have called to congratulate us for our role in — in this accord but who are — some of whom were astounded that this took place.
{snip}
Q Jared, this has already — you guys are telling this as a good step forward. But the Palestinian officials are already out criticizing it. If they aren’t on board, how is this a good peace deal right now?
{snip}
Q And, Jared, if I could follow up on something that you mentioned earlier. You talked about “visionary leadership,” not just in the region, but to — in general, including the President, to make something like this happen. He seemed, actually, fairly positive — albeit maybe cryptically — that may be something soon could happen again to keep this inertia going with perhaps another country.
{snip}
Q And very, very quickly, if I could just follow up with you. You’ve been in the headlines recently. Just to give you the opportunity to respond: Can you tell us why you were meeting with Kanye West? Did you discuss the election at all in any capacity?
MR. KUSHNER: Yeah. So Kanye has been a friend of mine for — I’ve known him for about 10 years. And, you know, we talk every now and then about different things, and we both happened to be in Colorado. And so we got together and we had a great discussion about a lot of things. He has some great ideas for — for what he’d like to see happen in the country, and that’s why he has the candidacy that he’s been doing.
But again, there’s a lot of issues that the President has championed that he admires, and — and it was just great to have a friendly discussion.
{snip}
Q You’ve — you voted by the U.S. mail, the President has voted by the U.S. mail, and many of his top people have voted by the mail. Why is he trying to prevent ordinary Americans from voting by mail?
MS. MCENANY: So, first, let me note, I’ve voted absentee; the President has voted absentee. He’s always been for voting absentee for a reason. What he is not for is mass mail-in voting or — perhaps, to make it even clearer — mass mail-out voting, where everyone on the voting rolls is mailed out a ballot.
Voting rolls in Los Angeles County, for example — you have 117 percent of the county registered to vote. How does that even make sense? It doesn’t. And that would mean that, in the least, 17 percent of the ballots floating around would be subject to potential fraud. So, that’s what the President is standing firmly against, but he has always been for absentee for a reason.
Yes.
Q Kayleigh, we learned today that still roughly 15 and a half million Americans are without a job. Nancy Pelosi spoke yesterday with the Treasury Secretary. Seemingly, there was no progress on that call.
For the 15 and a half million Americans and millions of others who could absolutely care less about the politics of it all, what would you tell them is coming next, considering that it seems as if nothing is moving policy-wise going forward?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, what I would say is this: You know, Secretary Mnuchin said yesterday, “I am willing to move forward with legislation that provides funds to schools, childcare, food, vaccines, hospitals, PPP for small businesses, rental assistance, broadband, airports, state and local government assistance, and liability protection for universities, schools, and businesses.” He’s been unmistakable — this administration has, and this President has. We’re willing to move forward on that.
{snip}
Q The unemployment claims are dipping below —
MS. MCENANY: Yes.
Q — a million. How surprised are you that that’s the figure and the direction we’re going?
MS. MCENANY: I’m not surprised because, under this President — he was the great jobs President once, brought us the greatest economy in modern history once, and he’ll do it again. And this is more evidence of that.
To see unemployment claims dip below a million, coming on the backs of a July jobs report that exceeded expectations; and, of course, the two blockbuster jobs reports before that — it goes in line with the manufacturing ISM good numbers that we saw and many other metrics.
This is the President who’s already making sure we have an economic rebound that outpaces Europe and other countries as well.
{snip}
Chanel.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. Going back to Iran and Russia as geopolitical actors in the Middle East, they have been wellsprings of instability there, as we discussed. But how confident is this White House that Iran and Russia are finally going to be placed in their respective lanes in the advent of this deal and deals to come?
MS. MCENANY: Well, look, we believe that there’s a big contrast here in where this administration stands and the previous administration.
And when you look at the — excuse me — the Obama-Biden admin- — administration, they cozied up to America’s enemies. The Iran deal was egregious. We know that there were cash payouts to Iran. And what this President has done is diametrically opposite: working with our allies, working with Israel, negotiating a historic peace agreement like hasn’t been seen in a quarter of a century.
So, when you work with our allies, when you engage in diplomacy, when you have a great dealmaker as President, you get deals like what we saw today. And it’s stark contrast to what we saw from the previous administration.
Yes.
Q Does the President share former Vice President Biden’s view that annexation would virtually end any chance at a two-state solution that would secure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state and uphold the right of Palestinians to a state of their own? (Inaudible.)
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, so, I’m not going to go any further into the state of Middle East peace. I’d refer you to NSC on that. But today we’re focusing on the historic agreement that’s been made.
Yes.
Q Yeah, is — was the President aware about these two dozen letters between him and Chairman Kim that apparently are going to be published in the new Bob Woodward book? Did he sign off on that?
MS. MCENANY: I haven’t even looked into that, or spoken to him about that. We’re focused, today, on providing relief to the American people and the historic deal.
{snip}
So we encourage for Speaker Pelosi to follow in the footsteps of the suggestion of Congressman Ro Khanna, of her own party, who said, “I think Congress should be in session. I think it’s absurd for Congress to be going on a break during a pandemic and a national crisis.” I can tell you one person who hasn’t been on a break: It’s this President, providing relief for the American people.
Thank you. And he’ll be out here at 5:30. Thanks so much.
END
2:13 P.M. EDT