New WH press secretary says she will never 'lie' from the podium

Making her debut at the first briefing by a White House press secretary in more than a year, newly-appointed Kayleigh McEnany vowed to never "lie" from the podium, and said that her mission is to deliver facts so that US President Donald Trump gets "fair and accurate" reporting.

Press Secretary McEnany, 32, was addressing the reporters in the James S Brady Press Briefing room in the White House on Friday.

"Its my mission to bring you the mindset of the President, deliver those facts so this President gets fair and accurate reporting, and the American people get fair and accurate information, she said.

I will never lie to you. You have my word on that, the White House Press Secretary said making her maiden appearance in the press briefing room.

This was the first news conference by a White House press secretary in more than a year.

The press briefing is normally overcrowded by reporters during the inaugural conference by any new White House press secretary.

However, because of the social distancing measures adopted by the White House and the Secret Service amid the coronavirus pandemic, her first news conference was attended by a little over a dozen correspondents, many of whom congratulated her on her debut.

A former CNN contributor and Harvard Law graduate, McEnany previously worked as a spokesperson of the Trump Campaign.

She is the 31st White House press secretary and fourth of the Trump Administration. The previous three being Sean Spicer, Sarah Sanders and Stephanie Grisham. McEnany joined the White House last month.

Republican leader Indian-American Nikki Haley, who was the former US Ambassador to the UN, congratulated her on her first great press briefing.

Congratulations Press Secretary on a great first press briefing! Haley tweeted.

McEnany told reporters that she will try to do White House press briefings regularly.

As to the timing of the briefings, we do plan to do them. I will announce timing of that forthcoming, but we do plan to continue these, she said.

During her maiden press conference, she responded to a wide range of questions, including domestic and international. She came with a binder in her hand, which apparently had Administration's talking points on all kinds of issues.

Responding to a question, she gave an inkling of her preparation.

I can tell you this: I'm around the President almost the entire day. I was just with him before I left to come out and speak with you guys. I think my staff can attest to the fact that they have a very hard time finding me because I'm normally with the President in the Oval Office. So I'm consistently with him absorbing his thinking, she said.

According to The New York Times, over all, Ms. McEnany's confident performance was less combative than those of one of her predecessors, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

She was smooth, calm and even a little combative in defending a range of presidential policies, programs and statements. In short, she was what Trump might have been hoping for when he picked the 32-year-old former CNN pundit and re-election campaign spokeswoman to be his chief press representative, The Washington Post reported.