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Opinion Kayleigh McEnany Watch: Down with Playboy!

Media critic|
September 26, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. EDT
Brian Karem is seen during a news briefing at the White House on June 14, 2018. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Tenth in an occasional series on White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, to prove the impossibility of speaking for President Trump.

Those who haven’t seen Brian Karem have probably heard him. He’s the Playboy magazine correspondent who typically yells questions at White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany as she makes her scripted exits from the briefing room. A victim of social distancing downsizing in the briefing room, Karem hangs in the back and struggles to get into the Q&A rotation.

“When will the president do something about bounties on American soldiers?” Karem shouted to McEnany last month as she left.

On Wednesday, however, Karem secured a moment to corner President Trump on an issue that has hovered on the margins of political debate for a few years. “Mr. President, real quickly: Win, lose, or draw in this election, will you commit here, today, for a peaceful transfer of power after the election?”

Trump replied with thoughts that have since roiled cable news, the capital and beyond for days: “Well, we’re going to have to see what happens. You know that. I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster.” Karem kept on him, prompting Trump to deliver a bit more candor: “We want to have — get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very trans- — we’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly; there’ll be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it.”

Trump’s statement was news, even if it really wasn’t. In August, Trump had already signaled his unwillingness to accept an adverse electoral outcome: “The only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged — remember that,” he said. “So we have to be very careful. . . . The only way they’re going to win is that way. And we can’t let that happen.”

His more direct remarks Wednesday prompted quickie write-ups by the major outlets and wall-to-wall postings on social media.

All the coverage made it inevitable that McEnany would encounter a request for clarification on Thursday. ABC News correspondent Jonathan Kar got right down to it. Here’s the exchange:

KARL: Yeah, Kayleigh, I’m wondering if you can just clean up or clarify something the President said yesterday. If he loses this election, can you assure us that there will be a peaceful transfer of power?
MCENANY: You are referring to the question asked by the Playboy reporter, right?
KARL I’m referring to — with the President being asked if there would be a peaceful transfer of power, and he did not say yes.
MCENANY: Yeah, I believe —
KARL: So I’m asking you: Will there be a peaceful transfer of power if he loses this election?
MCENANY: I believe that question asked by the Playboy (inaudible) — in fact, I think I have it right here. He was asked —
KARL: I’m asking this question.
MCENANY: He was asked — “win, lose, or draw” — whether he would accept the transfer of power. I’m not entirely sure, if he won, why he would accept a transfer of power. That is maybe the deranged wish of that reporter, but that’s not how governing works.
KARL: But I’m asking a very direct and very simple question. If the President loses this election, will this White House, will this President assure us that there will be a peaceful transfer of power? It’s a very simple question. We’ve been doing it since 1800.
MCENANY: The President will accept the results of a free and fair election.

Boldface added to highlight an astounding attack on the integrity of Playboy magazine. A dumb one, too.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany responded to questions on Sept. 24 about remarks President Trump made the day before. (Video: The Washington Post)

A question is a question — it needs no credentials or mainstream media pedigree. A fine illustration of this dynamic surfaced during last week’s ABC News town hall, wherein citizens pelted Trump with pointed questions. Pastor Carl Day of Philadelphia, for instance, asked, “When has America been great for African Americans in the ghetto of America? Are you aware of how tone-deaf that comes off [in] the African American community?” Trump responded with cant about his popularity among African Americans, among other thoughts.

If McEnany was dissing Playboy, whose reporter the White House has credentialed, what outlet would she vest with bona fide question-asking authority? CNN? The Post? The New York Times? Well, no: Her boss and his underlings have tarred the entire lot.

One wonders whether McEnany remembered that Trump himself appeared on the cover of Playboy? Or that he gave at least two interviews to the magazine — material that presaged many of his presidential tendencies?

Perhaps McEnany divulged her own biases. It’s surely uncomfortable to have Karem standing in the back of the room, shouting unpleasant questions at the conclusion of her briefings. The high-volume outbursts tend to mar McEnany’s carefully planned departures — those mic-drop moments when she issues a diatribe about some issue and then hustles out of the room. In an interview with the Erik Wemple Blog, Karem says he’s heard from sources that those moments have stirred anguish among White House officials.

The shouting is necessary because Karem roams the briefing-room sidelines, if he’s lucky. Even in pre-covid days, Playboy didn’t have an assigned seat. Weeks into the coronavirus outbreak, the White House Correspondents’ Association instituted a rotation for 14 of the briefing room’s 49 seats. Karem has hovered in a vestibule at the back, hoping to get his chance.

At Wednesday’s briefing, Karem discovered that one of those 14 designated seats was open. “I figured, what the heck, I’d take the seat,“ Karem told the Erik Wemple Blog. Even with his mask on, Karem is a familiar figure to Trump. In April, Karem pressed the president on his administration’s well-documented failures on coronavirus testing. “I know you want to blame the WHO, but I’ve spoken to hundreds of people across the country in the last few weeks who say they still can’t get tested, and that they aren’t social distancing,” Karem said, kicking off tense banter with Trump.

After a bit more inquiry from Karem that day, Trump said, “I told them when they put this guy here it’s nothing but trouble. He’s a showboat.” The president went on: “If you keep talking, I’ll leave, and you can have it out with the rest of these people.” Describing Karem as a “showboat” is among the more accurate things Trump has ever said: Karem is the fellow who engaged in a 2019 shouting match in the Rose Garden with Trump booster Sebastian Gorka, a clash that prompted an unsuccessful White House attempt to suspend Karem’s credential. And during the tenure of press secretary Sarah Sanders, Karem gained clicks for his high-decibel briefing-room proclamations. “That’s a cheap shot, Sarah,“ he said in June 2018 after Sanders insulted CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

Cat Auer, Playboy’s executive editor, told this blog of Karem: “He’s fearless and he makes a practice of asking those important questions . . . whether he’s called on or not.”

A politician looking to avoid tough questions would have ignored Karem on Wednesday and tried his luck with others. But no: Trump called on Karem first. “That’s the thing that kills me,” says Karem. “When I’m in that room, or in the Rose Garden or in the East Room, rare has been the time that he hasn’t” called on me.

Just a guess here: Trump enjoys securing high TV ratings for his briefings. What better way to attract eyeballs than for one showboat to engage another showboat?

Even one who works for Playboy magazine.

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Trump may think he can sugarcoat coronavirus, but media critic Erik Wemple says it is time for the government to speak with one clear voice about public health. (Video: Erik Wemple/The Washington Post, Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)