Kayleigh McEnany "I Have No Doubt That God Has Guided My Path" 59:33

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Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz. Thanks so much for joining us today. We're going to talk a little bit about what's in the news and what's happening. We're going to dilate the stupid because as we've always said, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. And then we're going to phone a friend and I'm thrilled to be able to call Kaylee McEnany. She has done an unbelievable job at a very young age.

Rising to become the press secretary for President Donald Trump. If you see how the media treated her, oh my goodness, did she do that with eloquence and then fire right back in their grill? She earned millions of people in just admiring what she did and how she did it.

So we're going to call her and get her on the phone, and I think hopefully learn a lot more about her and her life and her approach and the amazing talent that she is. So thanks again for joining us here on the podcast. Let's drive right into the news because we still have a huge financial mess. Now, I've talked a couple of weeks on this podcast about the major financial mess that we're in, but the Democrats have made this exponentially worse.

It's hard to fathom how big a trillion dollars is. We're talking about multiple trillions of dollars. So try to look at it this way. It's the one metric that I've come up with that I think people can understand and grasp. If you spent $1 million a day, every single day, no days off, it would take you almost 3,000 years to get to 1 trillion.

Now, when I first ran for the House of Representatives back in the 2008 cycle, I was concerned because the debt was $8 to $9 trillion.

and growing exponentially. But here we are, we're turning the corner, getting ready to do fiscal year 2022. And what the Democrats have put forward in both the budget reconciliation, this so-called infrastructure bill, the other emergency spending packages that they put together, plus the mandatory programmatic spending, plus the interest on the debt, when you start adding all of that up,

And you look at the revenues, which is just less than $4 trillion to the Treasury, and you look at the spending, which is going to be in excess of $6 trillion per year, and it's hard to even get your numbers and your mind wrapped around this. The way the Congressional Budget Office, which is supposed to be nonpartisan, looks at this is over a 10-year trajectory or a 10-year window.

People in Congress would always laugh at Nancy Pelosi and others when they say, oh, well, it pays for itself in 15 years. Well, the congressional budget never scores it like that. Nobody looks at that. And by the way, there's not general accounting principles or anything that any of you have been in business or have a home budget or anything else. It's nothing like this at all. But what we're looking at as a nation is

is a $40 to $45 trillion debt by 2031, so 10 years out from now.

Let that sink in 40 to 45 trillion. Now, if you look at the pace of inflation, which is skyrocketing right now because of the excess of government spending, I mean, there is a reason why we have the pure definition of inflation. Too many dollars chasing too few goods. And it's exacerbated by the fact that the government has been competing with the private sector for employees.

not just to hire them because of an expanding government, but because they are paying them to stay home and not to work. And Joe Biden and others think it's kind of cute that, hey, the wages have gone up, but so has inflation is outpacing it. So you're making the valuation of the dollar go down because it's just not, your money's not worth as much because you can't buy as much. And the one that it hits is,

are the lower income people, people on fixed incomes, people who can't just go out and get yet another job, or they're not going to go to work and get a 10% raise next year. So

the problem here is we have democrats on steroids spending as much as you possibly can you have polls that are out there saying you know what there is a move towards socialism where they want the government now government's going to be spending and again it's really hard to get the final number because it's still in motion we'll see what they actually pass but when your government is spending about and just the federal government just doesn't even count the state or local government

about one out of every $4 in this country, almost 25% of our gross domestic product is spent by the federal government. That becomes a disgusting amount of money. There is a proper role of government, but it's not that big. It's just untenable now because Democrats have the House and Senate and the presidency. And remember,

The last couple of years under Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi held the purse strings. She was the one. All spending originates in the House of Representatives. So remember, when Donald Trump pulled back on regulation and when he cut the taxes, what happened to revenue to the Treasury? It went up.

It went up. Democrats seem to think that if you just raise taxes, there'll be more to tax and consequently revenue to the Treasury will increase. Not necessarily. Not necessarily because economic activity is suppressed.

And so it's a very difficult equation. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won't, but you much rather have a thriving US economy than an economy that is purely or mostly or significantly driven by the spending of the federal government. For them, it's about power. It's about control. It's why they wrote a book called They Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste, The Truth About Disaster Liberalism. When I wrote that book, leading up into this, you could see it coming a million miles away

They never let a crisis go to waste. The truth about disaster liberalism. And they always see everything in crisis mode. That's why they always want to spend too much money. So we're going to hear about it. I know you're getting ready for Labor Day and everything else, but by golly, this is all you're going to hear about because that's what they're doing is trying to spend and create as much government as they could possibly do as fast as they possibly could. All right. Time to bring on the stupid.

Because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. I'm going to look again to Oregon here because I got to tell you, Oregon is putting something in motion that I just, I can't believe. The headline here in the New York Post is, Oregon Governor signs bill suspending math reading requirements for high school grads.

The governor there, Governor Kate Brown, is a Democrat. She signed a bill last month, just kind of quietly passed it along because she just essentially wants to lower the expectations. You know, if nobody fails, then, you know, then, of course, everything's OK. Let me point to an editorial that was written there. Quote, Oregon schools are

were among the last in the country to reopen to in-person instruction during the pandemic. Our legislators should be focused on how to help students regain the ground they've lost after a year and a half of distance learning and hybrid instruction, not on lowering our standards. So what they've tried to do is to say, you know what, it's kind of racist to have standards. It's kind of racist to actually test people on this stuff. But that's what they're doing.

According to the article, Charles Boyle, the deputy communications director from Brown's office, told the paper in an email that the staff from the governor's office informed legislative staffers about the bill signing on the day it was passed. He also said that the new standards for graduation will help benefits the states, black, Latino, Latinx, indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, tribal and students of color.

It was just unbelievable that they took this. I think it's pretty stupid to just go ahead and get rid of this all in the name of, well, you don't need to test because if you test, people might fail and that might be racist and that might be, that to me is just flat out stupid. We need to raise the bar. We need to make sure that people are actually getting the education. That means doing it in person.

And for that, I just think it's pretty stupid. All right. I got to tell you, stories from the halls of Congress, I like to kind of tell and share stories here. And, you know, as the chairman of the House Oversight Committee with a new Republican president, Donald Trump, coming into place, it was pretty exciting because some of the colleagues that I was working with were suddenly saying,

front and center with the administration. Ryan Zinke, for instance, became the Interior Secretary. Didn't see that one coming. Later, Mark Meadows would leave to become the Chief of Staff to the President. There are a whole host of people. John Ratcliffe, who I served with there in the House of Representatives, the Congressman from Texas, became the Director of National Intelligence. Kind of did it the hard way. Kind of had to

Start, stop, start again. There were discussions about other people joining the administration. But to go over and to interact with the White House and have communications with the White House and have people that you know and that you can listen to and have discussions is really what you're supposed to be doing as a representative of

I was always amazed from Donald Trump really reached out and made a concerted effort to join and to engage, I should say, with Democrats. For instance, I'm the chairman of the Oversight Committee. The ranking member, the lead Democrat is Elijah Cummings.

Elijah Cummings and President Trump had multiple conversations before the president ever had a conversation with me. It got to the point where I actually said to Reince Priebus, the chief of staff, hey, you know, maybe I could chat with the president because he keeps calling Elijah Cummings. One time Elijah was late for our committee start and he was never late. Elijah Cummings was always on time, but he was late this one time. And I got word from him. I was like, are you okay if we start, you know, to the staff? And they're like, yeah, go ahead. He's going to be a few minutes. So,

We kick off this hearing and I do my opening bit and then we're hearing testimony from the panel and he sits down and I kind of whisper to him, "Hey, you all right?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "I couldn't get him off the phone." I said, "Who?" He said, "President Trump. He calls me. He keeps calling me." And Donald Trump was very engaged there. Never got credit for it. Never heard a word or a peep about it. Always heard that it was quite the opposite.

But he went out of his way to do that. I can tell you that few and far between did we ever have that in the eight years that Barack Obama served.

Eight years that he was there, not so fast. The one time that I had the chief of staff come over and visit with me is we had President Obama came at sort of the one-year anniversary of being sworn in. We were in Baltimore, and some of us got to ask questions. And I asked Mike Pence if I could ask a question. Mike Pence was our conference chairman, and he said yes. So

I had, I don't know, the fourth or fifth question that day. And I went up on CNN and I won't go through the belabor of the whole thing, but I think the White House was a bit embarrassed. And so the chief of staff reached out, said, I want to come over and have lunch with you. Sure enough, we got sandwiches, broke bread, had a discussion. I did appreciate it. I thought this is the way it's supposed to work, even though I'm in the minority.

And then never heard a peep ever after that. Did get invited to a couple of things, but not to the degree that I saw Donald Trump doing it. And it is fascinating to see how the chief executive, the president through the years has dealt with us in different ways. And look, I was just a rank and file person.

uh, originally, uh, in the house of representatives and there are lots of us, but when I became the, uh, the chairman, um, and then there's only like 18 of us, um, then you would have thought it would be a little bit different, but anyway, Donald Trump treated it the way I think it should have been. And differently, at least from my perspective, we'll be back with Kaylee McEnany right after this.

Jason in the House, the Jason Chaffetz podcast. Dive deeper than the headlines and the party lines as I take on American life, politics and entertainment. Subscribe now on Fox News podcast dot com or wherever you download podcasts. All right. So now it's time to phone a friend. I'm thrilled to be able to give a call to Kayleigh McEnany, you know, or is the press secretary for President Trump.

Phenomenal success at a very young age. And I want to kind of walk through and learn how did she ascend to the heights at the highest levels where others couldn't. So let's dial up Kaylee McEnany. Hi, this is Kaylee. Kaylee. Hey, Jason Chaffetz. Thanks for joining us on the Jason in the house podcast. I really do appreciate it.

Great to join you. It's funny, since I've joined Fox, we have not crossed paths in the hallway yet, but I hope to see you around soon. Well, I was around Fox like every week and then COVID happened. And it's funny that way because we do, we talk to each other on television or we're both guests on a show or something. But I do miss bumping into you. And gosh, I think I got to know you back even before you left.

You joined the Trump Organization, so you've had quite the ride, Kaylee. This is not the normal trajectory that people take on their life and their career.

Yeah, it's been an interesting one, particularly the year and a half that I spent at CNN where I got pummeled on eight-on-one panels as the only conservative oftentimes. So it's been quite a run from there to the podium, which it's good preparation indeed, being in that kind of adversarial environment to go and face the White House reporters. But it's been a fun ride, and I have no doubt that God has guided my path because everything just worked so seamlessly that there was someone up above lighting up the path forward. Yeah.

Well, I believe in divine powers and inspiration, but there are also things that happen along your life. My guess is you did things in preparation for one of the most intense jobs that there is, certainly working for a president job.

And so let's go back. Let's talk about when you were born, when you were little, Kaylee, just the little girl that was born and you're this, the light in your parents' eyes. And this was back in Florida, right? You were born and raised in Florida? Yeah.

Yes, born and raised in Florida. I grew up in Plant City, which is the strawberry capital of the world. It's a small agricultural town and ended up going to Tampa eventually, where I went to All Girls Catholic School. I had two great parents, still have them with us, thankfully. My dad came from very little, but built a roofing company from the ground up. And my mom was a teacher turned stay-at-home mom, and they raised me in the church. We went to a Bible-based Baptist church.

evangelical church. And, you know, I learned, you know, a lot of my faith there, but then obviously going to Catholic school as well. So I was, you know, from the beginning immersed in a world that was Christian, that was conservative. And I quickly grew to love politics, riding in my dad's truck, listening to the great Rush Limbaugh. You know, my family's not in politics, never have been, but Rush Limbaugh, you know, those rides were formative for me and they just lit a fire within me and a passion for politics that,

really informed my whole childhood and then my young career. So let's go back to that. I mean, look, the roofing business is not an easy business and especially in a hot, humid place like Florida. So hats off to your dad for for building and growing that business. So when you were a little girl, like, did you read the newspaper? You sounds like you were in the car listening to Rush Limbaugh. What were those other things that were happening that kind of created awareness about the world around you?

You know, my family, they discuss, you know, news stories of the day. So at the dinner table, I think I learned a lot of my political views. But certainly it was Rush Limbaugh was the big one. You know, I was listening to the others as well. Glenn Beck on the air. You know, Sean Hannity was on the air. But I wasn't really watching the news or really reading the news even. But, you know, for whatever reason, you know, I remember Bill Clinton running against Bob Dole and I was

probably, I guess, in first grade at the time. And I remember, you know, having cheering for Bill Clinton on the on the playground or not Bill Clinton. Excuse me. Back that up for Bob Dole on the playground. And, you know, my brother, he voted for Bill Clinton in the school election. And I never forgave him. I didn't speak to him for like a whole week because, you

He voted for him because he liked the sound of his name, even though no one in my family supported then Democrat nominee or president, I should say, Bill Clinton. But just from a young age, for whatever reason, I was animated by by politics. And I think Rush had a lot to do with it. Talk radio was kind of my bastion and my hub there riding in the car. I wasn't reading the newspaper, not until I got to high school or much older. But it just was an innate passion that I think God put in me and Rush Limbaugh sparked.

Okay, so when you were a little girl, was there a desk or a table at home and you would stand up and say, all right, I've got something to say and everybody needs to listen? I mean, were there those types of things? I mean, there's public speaking. Then there's other public speaking, right? There's public speaking...

And then there's the White House podium with a media corps that has an agenda that's just, I mean, what they did to you and how they did it was just absolutely unbelievable and wrong, in my opinion. But did you have experiences in grade school or high school? Were you on the debate team? I mean, what gave you that backbone to get up there and just shoot it right back to them the way that you did?

So I was actually on the debate team in high school. I did Congress, which was my event, a really fun event. I encourage anyone who's interested in politics or public speaking to try it out in high school, certainly. It was great. I was complimented.

kind of natural at it in that, you know, I won the state championship twice, went to nationals one of those times. Did not, you know, succeed at nationals, but it was a great experience getting on your feet. I had my Ronald Reagan quote book and, you know, no matter what the topic was, I could flip to a Ronald Reagan quote and pull it in and its relevancy. So that was a great experience just being on your feet, learning to speak and then going into media, which is where I eventually went after doing a ton of internships in politics,

in the Bush White House, actually, I interned. And I remember watching then Press Secretary Dana Perino, and I was just mesmerized by her and her interaction with the press. It inspired me to go get an internship at Fox News. And I interned, did my first job at Fox.

got some on-air experience along the way. And, you know, all of that really prepared me, the television, the public speaking, the debating for eventually taking to that podium. And those CNN panels, as I mentioned, you know, I had to be prepared for to respond and defend everything I said. And that,

That was helpful. But even more than all of that, Jason, I would say was the year that I spent at Oxford University. It's a different system. You don't submit a paper and then the professor marks it and gives it back to you. You have to read it out loud and defend every single assertion that you make.

Those were grueling, more grueling than a press briefing. And I think that year, all of the experience mattered. But that year in particular, made me a fact oriented person always prepared with data to back up my point and sourcing. But where does this come from, Kaylee? I mean, there are a lot of young men, a lot of young girls that, that grow up and say, you know, I want to make a difference. I want to be involved. A lot of kids go through debate in high school, but

Why do you think, what do you attribute your rising to the level that you did that, I mean, a lot of people would like to do what you did. They don't have necessarily the talent and the skill pool that you have, but then there's the other part to actually getting to do it. What do you attribute that to?

You know, I think a lot of watching my dad, I mean, again, you know, creating a business from the ground up, that's, that's a grueling task and he has so much passion, you know, whatever he's doing, be it when he was a sec football player just the enormous amount of passion that he had. He was a defensive end and very small for that role. He's like six foot one, which is small for a defensive end. But he excelled. He was a walk-on he fought because he had this undying passion for

football, ended up becoming captain of the team. And, you know, that kind of passion and hard work is definitely in me. So when I set out to do something, I don't only want to do it, I want to be the best at it. And if that meant going to law school, where I spent my first year at Miami Law, my mom joked that she came to my apartment and she's like, is this like the beautiful mind? You have like so many neon sticky notes, I can't even see the wall, which is

We joked about it, but it just was passion. The only thing I did in that first year of law school, I didn't go out like others did, but I would go to my grandmother's house and have pizza with her every Saturday night. That was my treat. Other than that, I was studying nonstop. So I think that hard work and passion is passed down to me from my parents. The passion is what God put in me, but that hard work and almost obsession to try to be the best at your profession or the best in law school, that's definitely something that I think...

My dad passed down to me in a big way. Now, did you have a job in high school? I mean, what was your first job? So I worked at Hollister for a few months. Hollister is a clothing store like Abercrombie and Fish. I think it's associated with that. I did that for a month or two. Were you good at it?

I wouldn't say I was good at it. I got very bored asking people, do you know how great our jeans fit every time they walked in the door? I don't think I'm a salesman. I wasn't very good in that respect. But, you know, eventually it was just taking time away from school and debating the activities. So it was a good experience, no doubt, but had to set it aside and put everything into academics. So when you then you transferred, you were at Miami, but then you transferred to Harvard, correct? Yeah.

Yes. Yes. So I intentionally chose Miami. I'd gotten accepted to other law schools, but I chose Miami because I wanted to go back to Florida. I missed my family. They offered me a scholarship. It made a whole lot of sense. It was the greatest, one of the greatest years of my life. I can definitely say prior to meeting my husband, because I got to spend that time with my grandmother who recently passed and she was just fun loving and

red wine drinker, just enjoyed life. And, you know, she's the life of the party. So I got to spend a year with her and I didn't want to leave. I ended up getting the highest grades in my class, number one in my class. And I had a professor pull me aside and say, hey, Kaylee, I know you want to be here in Florida. I know you don't want to leave this law school, but you are doing yourself a disservice if you don't try to transfer. You've earned these grades and you deserve

you owe it to yourself to try to transfer, which my stomach sunk. I wanted to be back with my family in Florida, but applied to transfer, got into Harvard, Columbia, everywhere I applied. I withdrew my application from Yale because Harvard was a dream of mine since I was a young girl. And it was the honor of a lifetime to get to go to that law school for the final two years and to graduate from HLS.

So, and then, and then where was the transition from there? Okay. Now you graduate, you get your degree, you know, high five to Kaylee for getting her, her degree. Now, now what, now, where do you want to go in life?

So in between undergraduate at Georgetown and law school, I was a producer actually at Fox for the Mike Huckabee show. And, you know, when you and I talked at the beginning about divinity and God guiding your path, you know, it's crazy that, you know, now Dana Perino is my colleague and I watched her as an intern and eventually stood at that podium myself. It's crazy that my first job out of college was,

was with the Huckabee show where you got it. I crossed paths with Sarah Sanders, who ended up holding that podium just before me. And, you know, all these people whose lives I intersected with as interns and a young worker out of college. It's crazy the way it all ended up. And I think it was divine. That was a great year or three years. It was that I worked for Mike Huckabee.

He has a way of communicating very complex ideas in a way that's relatable. He was the best first boss I could ever ask for. It was an amazing three years at Fox, but I left to go to law school. I was doing a little TV here and there throughout law school, often with Stuart Varney as kind of a millennial commentator talking about millennial issues and

And near the end of law school, I had a big, you know, a bunch of clips that I had sent around to folks and CNN actually got back to me. And I started going on as a conservative commentator during my last year of law school. And when President Trump was running for office, CNN eventually hired me. I was their Trump supporter on the airwaves, one of the few. And it was a great experience, but I was doing it all through law school. I would take

you know, trips on the Acela corridor down to New York city and read my law books on the way, hop on a set. I remember Anderson Cooper saying, are you writing a law exam on my set? And I said, yes. And he joked and we laughed about it, but you know, it was a, it was a cool experience being a commentator, but also finishing that last year of law school. Okay. So then you get involved, you've done, you've got some television background, both as a producer, you're on air, um,

But then there's a transition at the White House where Mick Mulvaney, who was the temporary chief of staff for a long period of time, we always kind of joked with him about that. Yeah, it wasn't so temporary, but

And then Mark Meadows is coming on. And that's, I think, one of the very first moves that he made. I mean, a move like that's not happening without Donald Trump, but the president. But but that he was changing the atmosphere. He's changing what was going on in the White House. How did that call or that invite come down? Who called you? What was the discussion like?

So it really came as a surprise. Look, I knew the president a little. I had been RNC spokesperson. That was, you know, with the family supported that move, me getting that role. Laura Trump was instrumental to helping make that happen. Then I moved to the campaign. So at the time, you know, when I got the job in the White House,

I was working on the Trump campaign and I had been there for about a year and, you know, I'd taken my, my newborn daughter all across the country to Iowa, New Hampshire, all the places you think of as you're gearing up for a presidential bid. Um, and then all of a sudden all of that ceased because COVID-19 hit and the campaign, um,

went into lockdown just like the rest of the country. You know, I was working from home, um, a few weeks into working from home. I get a call randomly out of the blue. I knew president Trump a little, we would interact at rallies. Um, but you know, I didn't know him very well. Uh, but I get this call, um, as I'm writing over, um,

I'm riding on a bridge over the ocean with my daughter in the back seat and my mom in the front seat. And I'm trying to keep my daughter quiet. And I knew it was the president calling because it's that odd set of numbers that pops up on your phone. I knew it was him. So I'm trying to keep everyone quiet. And he says, you know, Kaylee, I've been thinking, would you want to be my press secretary?

And I mean, I was flabbergasted. I didn't even realize that they were pontificating a change at the White House. And I said, sir, it would be the honor of my lifetime. And then he said, Mark, get it done or something to that effect, which I assume that was Mark Meadows in the room as the new chief of staff. And it took a few weeks to get the details ironed out and make it official. But

Mark Meadows was a huge supporter in getting me that position. And he was a faith leader in the White House, a great boss. And what a great chief of staff the president had in Mark Meadows. So being a press secretary, you're supposed to be a reflection of the person you're working for, which is hard to do because there's so many moving parts. There's so many opportunities to step on a landmine, so to speak. But what was the president's approach with you

And how did he convey what he was thinking, what he wanted you to say, how he wanted to say it? How did that how did that like physically work? Once you show up at the White House day one. All right, Mr. President, I'm ready to go to work and I'm going to go out there to the podium for the first time. I mean, that's a lot of pressure. You know, he's watching and you know, he's going to have a critical eye. What was walk us through that?

Yeah, so it was interesting. So when I got to the White House, starting in the middle of a global pandemic, they were doing the Coronavirus Task Force briefings with President Trump and Dr. Fauci and others. Everyone remembers those. So I actually, I wasn't certain if I'd ever give a briefing. It had been 400 days since

a press secretary had given a briefing from the podium. So when I started, I said, you know, we'll play this by ear and see if the president ever asked me to go to the podium. A few weeks into the job, I think the president recognized my work ethic. He saw that I took copious notes for... I would take personal notes in a notebook, and he said, Kayleigh, hold up those notes. And he would marvel at the notes I had taken, and he had me show it to governors, senators, whoever was in the room. It was hilarious. And I think...

you know, right around that time when he had observed me for a few weeks, he out of the blue just said, Kaylee, I want you to do a briefing. And I said, okay, Mr. President thinking this was like on a Tuesday or Wednesday. And I thought, okay, I'll, I'll do it next week. You know, I need time to prepare. I've never done a briefing before. And he kept saying, Kaylee, I want you to do a briefing, do a briefing. And then on like, it was Wednesday afternoon, he said, do a briefing before the end of the week.

And we went into scramble mode. I had two amazing allies in the White House named Julia and Chad. They worked for me. They were great advisors. And we ended up creating the notebook together. But what made my job easy, Jason, and I don't believe it's this way in the current administration, is that I had constant and continuous access to President Trump. He'd call me first thing in the morning. I could walk in at any moment. I had walk-in privileges. He would include me in big meetings. And that kind of osmosis

made it to where I was, you know, by osmosis absorbing everything he thought, where he stood on every issue. And I remember, not to be long-winded, but just one example, you know, Psaki was asked from the podium, you know, did you speak to President Biden today? And I believe she said no at one point, which is crazy to me because I couldn't go a day without hearing from the president at least two or three times before my briefing. She was also asked about walk-in privileges and

and kind of gave a squirrelly answer indicating that maybe she didn't have those privileges. And I think as a press secretary, you're really advantaged if you have the ability to be around the boss all day long, which is what I had the ability to do and make good use of it at the podium.

Well, you're assuming that Joe Biden is actually in the Oval Office all day, which I think is a great leap of faith here. And yeah, for her comments, and I don't expect you to answer this or comment on it, but when she said, oh, I have a hard time keeping up with them, I think there was a collective reaction.

giggle around the country as if he was the hardest working person in DC. I was always amazed. Look, I saw Donald Trump mainly from afar, had some interaction, which I really did enjoy, but it was minimal at best. And when I did, I was just in awe of the energy and the enthusiasm and the approach and his grasp of

My first meeting, I went in with President Trump into the Oval Office. Reince Priebus was there. And I said, Mr. President, I got seven things I want to share with you that nobody's ever told you. And I think it piqued his interest. And we went on for a half hour. Every single one of those I brought up, he knew something about it. And I didn't think that was going to be the case. We were talking about postal. We were talking about things I thought he had never had any exposure to. That's why I was doing it as the chairman of the Oversight Committee and

The guy was engaged. That's for sure. Oh, yeah. That's so interesting. And I could totally see that. It doesn't matter the subject. He always knew something about it. That's exactly right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So now there had to be some point where you said something that maybe he didn't like. And I don't know that I need the specificity of that. But how did he deal with that with you? If he wasn't 100% Kaylee, I wish he had done this differently. How did he deal with that with you?

So I think that happened. It certainly happened on one occasion. Um, and you know, he just said, Hey, I wouldn't say that that way next time. I think, you know, I think it was a statistic that I conveyed where, um, it made, you know, it was a good statistic, but the number was so small that it kind of started trending on Twitter. And he said, you know, next time say it this way. Um,

He was very, very nice about it, very kind about it. It's funny. I remember reading reports of him watching Sarah and grading her. And I can't speak for Sarah's tenure. I just read a news report, but I can tell you he never did that with me. He had a lot of trust in me. Sometimes he'd watch my briefings. Other times he wouldn't. And I remember Maggie Haberman at the New York Times saying, what an insult. He doesn't even watch every one of her briefings. But I took it as a sign of faith and confidence. He knew if I was going to the podium, he had total and complete trust. I could handle any issue. I remember him.

the night before St. John's or this night that St. John's church burned during that riot. Um, it horrible. Um, they set the nursery on fire and it, part of it burned the church. Um, the BLM protesters did, or in this case, I should say the rioters. Um,

I remember calling him and saying, Mr. President, you know, maybe I shouldn't do the briefing tomorrow. Maybe you should take the lead on messaging. This is, you know, obviously a big event. And he said, no, I have total and complete trust in you. I'll speak on it too, of course, but go to the podium. I trust you to message this the right way. And we did a whole briefing on healing the country after a night of violent riots. So the president had total and complete trust in me. And, you know, if I said something wrong or he didn't like something, he would let me know. But I would say it was not very often. And he would just

Give me great advice because there's no better communicator than President Trump. He knows how to communicate. That's for sure. Yeah. You know, I have said many, many times Donald Trump should have won a lot of awards for his openness and transparency. And every so many of these traditional media outlets say, oh, we want to go back to the way things usually are. And I think, really, you really just want to have like a staff driven memo that's put out there that.

that the president may not even be aware of. I mean, Donald Trump was going before the media asking every answering every question you could possibly imagine as rude as they possibly were. When you, when you look back now and you've, you've been able to take a deep breath, you're with Fox, you know, as a contributor now and love, I love you on, on outnumbered and all the other shows that you do and Hannity and whatnot. But,

When you look back and you take that deep breath, do you think the press was inordinately unfair to you? Was it just a handful of people? How do you, when you look back at that experience, how do you, how do you think of it?

So there are certainly, you know, when I went into the job, I wanted to have a good relationship with reporters. I think it benefits the American people when reporters ask tough but fair questions and you don't have hostility. You know, I think that that's ultimately the way a briefing should function.

But it became impossible based on some of the hostilities coming from people like Jim Acosta, Caitlin Collins. But there are some very good reporters and, you know, they're the quieter ones. They're the Steve Hollins of Reuter. They're Justin Sinks, a good reporter. They ask very thoughtful, detailed, substantive questions because for them and you can tell very clearly that.

the difference between the type of reporters, the ones who really just want an answer to their question, really care about an issue, really want to put forward accurate information about an issue versus the reporters who, while that reporter's planning their detailed question on, I don't know, subsidies or sanctions on China, you know, while that reporter's preparing that, Jim Acosta's preparing the line he wants to yell when you walk out of the room so that it goes viral and he can do a CNN segment. There's a clear difference between the

Two types of reporters. I think the latter type, the sensational type, only exists in a Republican administration. You don't see the yelling of questions, the hostility in the Biden administration that from the reporters now, that just doesn't exist. So

So I think, you know, looking back, I'm very proud of the job that I did because my overarching goal, number one, was to highlight the forgotten men and women. And we did that at the podium talking about people like David Dorn, the police officer who lost his life, and these children who have died to crime in the streets. And we highlighted their stories, which was what I wanted to do. But secondly, I also wanted accountability. And I knew that if the reporters ever got personal,

if they ever tiptoed up to that line, that I would be prepared to challenge them in the way they were challenging me. And it only took until I think the second briefing when they got personal and we were prepared to challenge them. If you're going to bring up a statement from my past, I'm going to bring up your headlines. They brought up the fact that I said COVID would not come here. And I was articulating the rationale behind travel restrictions. Think of it as a coach who says,

you know, we're going to win this game. Well, when you don't win the game, that doesn't make the coach a liar. That was a statement of anticipation, what you wanted to see happen. So they use that against me. And I was prepared with their headlines to challenge them right back. And I think conservatives have to do that. They have to stand up to a liberal press. And so I'm proud of the tenure. And if I had to do it all again, I'd do it the exact same way.

Well, those were some great moments because there were a lot of us cheering like, oh, they weren't expecting that. They didn't expect somebody to get right back up in their grill and have it right at their fingertips. And yeah, you're right. Probably those years doing some debate, going to Oxford where you have to read your paper out loud. That is intimidating. But what a great skill set. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Kaylee McEnany right after this.

What do, what would, what advice, if you have somebody who wants to get involved, whether it's a gubernatorial level, a congressional level, I mean, there, there are different press jobs out there. There's people working in the, for corporate press opportunities. What, what advice would you give to a young person who's starting out on that?

So intern, intern, intern. That is the best thing you can do. Every company or certainly every campaign, I can tell you, I don't have to tell you this, Congressman, but every campaign needs free help, wants free help. So when I was in high school, I just stopped off at the Hillsborough County Republican Party headquarters and said, hey, how can I help? And they said, why don't you participate?

stayed in the phone bank. And then eventually, why don't you organize the phone bank? Why don't you be our intern? Which is kind of unheard of in high school to intern. But the light went off in my head. If I can intern in high school,

And beyond, I can have access to some of the most powerful places in the world or the most powerful platforms like a national news station. So I interned probably 10 places, Bush-Cheney campaign and a gubernatorial primary for Adam Putnam, who was on the Hill at the time, the Bush administration, the Huckabee show, the Hannity and Coleman

show back when it was Hannity and Combs. So interning is key. And then when you get that internship, first part of the battle is getting the internship. The second part is excelling at it because you've got busy bosses that don't have time to give you tasks. And so I always rose to the occasion and did it

above and beyond. You know, one time at Fox as an intern, you know, I wanted to write an opening script for the little opening animation of the show. And rather than asking my boss to do it, I just wrote it every day and set it on his desk. And he started reading it. And he was like, this is pretty good. Why don't you start taking the first crack at it? And it was a great opportunity there at Fox. But it was only made possible because I went above and beyond and thought, how can I make my boss's job easier? And writing the script was a great opportunity, among many others through my internships.

Well, I can tell why you rose to the top of the food chain, Kayla, because I got to tell you, I've hired a lot of people and had a lot of people intern for me along the way. And that almost never happens. It is the opportunity because particularly when you're involved in politics and you got somebody who's talented and shows enthusiasm and excitement, boy, you're hired, especially if you cost zero. And but then you got to actually produce and and you always end up doing things differently.

Like you don't get the compensation and the title and then you get to do stuff. You got to do stuff and then maybe the compensation, maybe the title will come in behind it. But that network that you built in those experiences, you had uniquely prepared you to be a press secretary for a president of the United States. What an amazing, amazing journey.

um thank you i don't care how many press briefings you've had and how many you know hard questions you've had on different shows nothing has quite prepared you for the rapid questions i'm about to ask you so i i hope you got your seat belt on and you're ready for this i'm ready to go all right here we go um first concert you attended oh i think garth brooks at the florida strawberry festival was among the first so that's that's legit

Yeah. What a great entertainer. I watched his documentary, by the way. I was I was fascinated by it. He's it was just really neat. He's a great entertainer. So that's a good one. All right. What was your high school mascot?

The Tigers. Well, the Jesuit Tigers. That was all boys' school. I guess mine was a Jaguar because I went to the all-girls school. But I was a cheerleader for the boys' school, so I'm going to go with Jesuit Tigers. Now, wait a sec. You're a cheerleader for the boys' school? So you were cheerleading over at the girls' school, but when it was game day, you went over and cheered for the boys' school?

Yes. So the girls school, we were the cheerleaders for the boys football team. So they drafted their cheerleaders out of the girls school. And then we'd go over to the boys school and Friday nights, you know, be there for football. And then, you know, many weekdays for basketball. Did not know that about you. All right. Who was your first celebrity crush?

Ooh, that's a good question. Who's that person you were thinking, oh my goodness, I like that person? Yeah, I think Aaron Carter because Backstreet Boys were very in when I was younger and Aaron Carter was more my age. Nick was a little old for me. So I'm going to go with Aaron Carter.

Yeah, there are a lot of people that had him on their list. So I can't really totally relate to it, but I know that he was on a lot of people's list. All right. Your favorite vegetable? Oh, I love vegetables. I would say zucchini because you saute it with some garlic. I mean, you can't go wrong. So I'm going to go with zucchini. You're the first person to say that they like

And every single time I've asked this question, I've had a different vegetable show up. Yes. But zucchini is like that's mainstream. I get that one. All right. So if you if you if you actually sat down and met Bigfoot, what would you ask him? Oh, gosh. I met Bigfoot.

How he liked being portrayed in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Was that Bigfoot? There was like this big monster. That was the Abominable Snowman. Okay, I'm getting my monsters wrong. He had big feet, but different dude. We're talking Daryl, the guy who's out in the forest somewhere, you know, that maybe there's some videos. I thought the question should ask is, is that really you in those videos? And like, how old are you? You know, things like that.

But I love those claymation, those old raskin, whatever they are. Those claymations, Rudolph. Yeah, the abominable snowman. One of my favorite dudes. Yes. So, look, you are outright famous. I mean, you've been on television so much and being the president's spokesperson. But my guess is every once in a while somebody will see you.

And they'll think you're actually a different celebrity. Which one, which celebrity do they think you look like? So I get, um, I, people said, used to say Kellyanne Conway a lot. Cause they just saw a blonde person in the Trump administration. Now I get more like, um,

Ainsley people have said, which I'm so flattered by because I love Ainsley. So those two I get a lot, but it's weird. It used to be when I was in politics, Kelly M, but now more people mistake me for like Ainsley in the morning show. Well, in Fox and all that. Yeah. So I, you know, I can see that happening from time to time. You don't look radically different. My off macho, the karate kid, you know, that's like an old school movie. I was out way before you were even born. So, yeah.

Did you have pets growing up? What was your favorite pet? Yeah. So we've had dogs. We currently actually, my parents have three dogs. I say weeks. I'm at my parents' house so often, but...

I would say the Maltese we had growing up. There was one I really liked named Jake. So he was cool. And now we have a great black lab. My husband does a bird dog. He goes duck hunting with. So definitely, definitely the dogs growing up. Labs are great. And duck hunting. Oh, that's so fun. I didn't know that about your husband. I'm going to need to get to know him because that's kind of fun. All right. Most embarrassing life moment.

- Oh, well, I would say back when I was an intern, 'cause you know, when you're young, you wanna do everything right. I did at my internship and, oh, actually no, I'm gonna go back to a different one. So also interning, I was at the Bush White House and

I had Eli Manning who was coming. They had just won the Giants at one Super Bowl. Everyone knew I was obsessed with Peyton Manning. So they let me escort Eli Manning through the Rose Garden. And I thought it would be a great idea to have him sign his brother's jersey. I didn't realize that was taboo. I didn't realize it was offensive. He looked at me like I had...

like five heads but he did sign it so I have a Peyton Manning jersey with Eli's signature and then I accidentally asked Tom Coughlin to take a picture of us who was the coach so multiple embarrassing moments that day oh my gosh yeah that's pretty bad actually here sign your brother's shirt for me and coach you got an extra minute yeah

I'm sure he got over it. All right. If you could meet one person, this is going to be a person dead or alive. If you could meet one person, hang out with them, have dinner with them, who would that person be? Oh my gosh, that is a great question. I mean, I would say Jesus Christ, but he's alive and well. So I'm going to,

I already have a relationship with him. So I would say Ronald Reagan. I mean, I would love to just he's someone I grew up admiring, you know, many ways an outsider like Donald Trump. So to sit down and just ask him some questions and compare, you know, what it was like press wise in the 80s to now. I would love to get his thoughts on the way the media is today.

it was one of my coolest moments so he came to utah back in 1991 february 15th i think it was 14th or 15th and um i was working for a company and the company was paying for it so i got to go work with the advanced person

And I spent two days with Ronald Reagan. It was like the coolest thing. And at the very end, I asked the advanced person, I said, can I get the president's autograph? He said, sure, go ahead. And so I'm walked with him to the private jet that they had for him. You know, he's no longer the president.

And he took out these sticky notes and he had pre-signed them because he didn't like to sign them. You know, his hands were a little shaky at that point in his life. He didn't like to sign, you know, a piece of paper in his hand. You know, the pen goes through the paper or something. So he pre-signed them on the plane like a little thing of sticky notes. But his autograph, not only did he hand me that autograph, he took off his tie clip and then he took off his cufflinks and he handed them all to me.

And I thought, all right, now that was about the coolest thing ever. That says a lot about him. What a cool thing. That's awesome. And the speeches that he gave and the sincerity that he had, the Gipper was just one of my favorites. It really, really was. All right. Unique talent that nobody knows about with Kaylee McEnany. What can you do that nobody knows that you can do?

So apparently I'm not too bad at singing because I now I'm singing a lot because I have a one year old in eight months, you know, nearly two year old. And I've been singing all of my old favorite Disney songs and we're riding in the car. My mom's like, man, you're pretty good. And then last night I was singing and we have some friends visiting in town and they go, you're a really good singer. And I was like, wow, I didn't know I could sing. So who knows? I maybe I'll take some singing lessons.

So that's that's impressive. You're going to get invited to to sing the national anthem somewhere and it's going to surprise a lot of people. So you might want to start. You probably know the lyrics, but you might want to like and I don't think it's going to be intimidating for you. I don't think there is an intimidating situation you put you in. So I look forward to seeing that. All right. We're almost to the end here. I promise. Pineapple on pizza. Yes or no.

No, definitely not. I like my pizza. I knew I liked you, Kaylee. That is the only acceptable answer. So thank you. Yes. Do you get a lot of yeses on that one?

I do. And I tell them how wrong that is. And I had one person say, well, I only do it once a year. But no, pineapple does not belong on pizza. And it's kind of a pet peeve with me. All right. So when you want to get out, what's that other thing that Kaylee likes to do? When you want to clear your head, you just want to say, you know what? I just need to walk away from everything and just think about something that's

For me, I like go out and do like wildlife photography. That's sort of my getaway. It sounds like your husband likes to go duck hunting. What do you do?

So I like to be out on the water. You know, obviously, I'm a Florida girl. Love my dad has wave runners that we take out jet skis. I love being out in the water. We go to the Keys every year. My uncle has a great boat. So just there's something special about being out on the water, even if you're just sitting alongside the beach, but just having that total and complete serenity and silence and then blasting like Jimmy Buffett or, you know, Toby Keith or something, of course, after you've had that moment of serenity.

Yeah, I agree with you. There's something mesmerizing about the ocean, a lake to a good, good body of water. It's just peaceful and the serenity and it's just a marvel. So I agree with you. All right. Last question. Best advice you ever got. Oh, wow. That's a great question. You have, you have a lot of head stuffers. I've gotten a lot of great advice. That's why it takes me. You got the, you got the pineapple on pizza, right? So you can't fail at this one.

You know what? I think my dad, upon taking the job as press secretary, when I was just so nervous, I

I didn't know if I could do it. I was, I, you know, I just started to question myself. And he said to me, quoting the book of Esther, maybe you were made quote for such a time as this. And a Democrat commentator over at CNN actually texted me the very same words. And to me, it just lit up in my head. You know, God put me in this place in this time, in this moment for a reason for such a time as this. And I think every person, if whatever circumstance you have lying ahead, a new job,

uh, that's going to be tough, uh, challenging circumstance, you know, a battle you have on your hands. You just realize you're here for such time as this. Um, you know, you're not there by accident. Um, and I think that that helps give me the serenity that I needed. So good advice from my dad and a Democrat commentator too. Yeah. Nothing like booing you up and, and, uh, supporting you and, and, um,

You know, I do. I think it's the culmination of a lot of things, a lot of twists and turns. You could have gone one direction, you went another direction. But that culmination of all those experiences leads you to be, when you're in a new position, not quite sure how it's going to go, that just...

you somehow lean on all of those experiences, the good, the bad, the tough, the easy. But you did a fabulous job. I still standing off of what you did and how you did it. And just thrilled to be working with you at Fox, even though I never get to bump into you about as far away as we could be. But I thank you so much for joining us on the Jason in the house podcast. Kaylee, thank you so much.

Thank you, Jason. It's an honor to work with you. I've always admired you on the Hill and still do. And it's an honor to work with you. And what a fun podcast you have. This was a great time. I really enjoyed it. Well, good. Kaylee McEnany, the former press secretary for President Trump. We're going to hear a lot more from her, I'm sure, in the future. And just a great mom, too. We didn't get to talk about that part of your life, but maybe another time. So congratulations on that. And thank you again for joining us. Thanks so much, Jason.

I can't thank Kaylee enough. That was fun. I learned a lot about her actually. And I can't wait. I hope I get, I want to go duck hunting with her husband. I think that'd be a lot of fun. All right. I do have a prediction here as we kind of close out this podcast and it, it's about Kamala Harris. I think the political albatross that will be around the Democrats neck going into the presidential election will be Kamala Harris. I think she's been an absolute disaster. First eight months,

Very small office, the First Lady's office, and yet you have people literally having to go get some psychological help for the abusive nature of her office. Given some weighty assignments that she could have dealt with in a very professional and impressive manner, even though they may have not met my political tastes, but...

How she's handled the border. Can anybody on either side of the aisle even start to share what it is you think that she did? Voting rights, that has been tumultuous and disingenuous and nothing new coming out of the vice president's office. I think there's a reason why we're seeing now

Once she kicked off initially her presidential bid back in 2020, there were a lot of people that thought, wow, she might do this. Very quickly, once she started speaking, answering questions, meeting with donors and whatnot, she started to plummet. I mean, she literally, and I'm not, this is no exaggeration. She was polling like eighth in California, her home state, the home state senator polling eighth.

She was even behind Andrew Yang. I mean, she was polling so poorly that she had to pull out of the race. How in the world Joe Biden selected her, I think, says a lot about the judgment or the lack of judgment of Joe Biden.

but I think it will be the political albatross around Democrats. That's my prediction. Well, that's the Jason and I podcast. I do appreciate you joining us. You can find more about the Fox News podcast over at foxnewspodcast.com. That's foxnewspodcast.com. A lot of good selection out there. We'd love it if you like it, rate it, review the podcast, and we'll be back with more next week with another good guest.

I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason in the House.