A video claiming Al Jazeera reporter Kimberly Halkett had called White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany a 'lying b*tch' ha been doing the rounds on social media. However, the reporter has refuted the claims. Now, McEnany too has spoken out about the issue.
Reacting to the video and its claims, McEnany said that she wants to give the benefit of doubt to Halkett. Speaking during an interview with "Hannity," McEnany said that she conducted a poll among her staff and her staff was divided 50/50 on whether Halkett had used rude words against her.
Terming media as dishonest brokers, McEnany alleged that they do not give a benefit of doubt to her or to the president. "(But) I won't do that to a reporter who showed animosity, who was cruel, who was rude, who wasn't seeking answers for the American people," she said.
What is the Halkett-McEnany Issue?
During the press briefing in the White House, Al Jazeera reporter Halkett was grilling McEnany over the integrity of mail-in ballots issue. But McEnany did not care about it and moved on to another reporter. It is alleged that Halkett, who was wearing a mask uttered crude words as McEnany neglected her without answering her question.
When everyone was busy sharing and posting the video claiming that Halkett had used the crude words against McEnany, another journalist Charlie Spiering tagged Halkett and asked her if it was true. Reacting to the same, Halkett clarified on Twitter and said that she had not used those words.
"Thanks for asking @charliespiering.. there's a lot of misreporting out there about that briefing. The answer to your question is, I DID NOT. What I said was, "OKAY, YOU DON'T WANT TO ENGAGE," clarified Halkett.
Many have shown support to Halkett on social media, stating that important questions should be addressed by the press secretary. American activist Jack Posobiec also took to Twitter to show his support to Halkett. "The media has an extensive history of misrepresenting Trump's statements, going back to his announcement speech, and conservatives rightly call them out on it. You don't have to agree with @KimberlyHalkett, but she deserves to be represented truthfully as much as anyone else," he wrote.
The media has an extensive history of misrepresenting Trump's statements, going back to his announcement speech, and conservatives rightly call them out on it
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) July 21, 2020
You don't have to agree with @KimberlyHalkett, but she deserves to be represented truthfully as much as anyone else
