Former Trump Press Director Kaylee McKennanny is set to hold a new Fox News Show. Now she’s talking about Charlie Kirk and Caroline Leavit in the past
White House Press Secretary Kayley McKennanny will hold his first briefing
Cailey McNanney, appointed White House press secretary in early April, holds a press briefing inside camera with her fist.
USA TODAY
NEW YORK – She left a taddy interaction with reporters in the backview. The White House press briefing room has been in the past. This is likely to be her close relationship with President Donald Trump.
After leaving Fox News’ first Trump White House, Kayleigh Mcenany became a star of the cable network he once interned.
The three of them are currently adding new roles to host the two-hour program “Saturday in America” (10 ET), which will premiere on September 20th. McNanney, 37, continues to “fall up” along with two additional rotating hosts, Harris Faulkner and Emily Companue.
“It’s a great responsibility to give me this opportunity to bring news on Saturday,” Mcenany says from Fox News HQ Cafeteria in Manhattan on September 17th. “There’s a lot of seriousness. When the news cycle guarantees that, we’re going to enjoy it.”
Her first guest is no surprise. Caroline Leavit, a former White House employee at McNanney and current White House press secretary, was chosen to adopt the former boss fighting style with traditional media outlets.
The first episode of the show also pays tribute to Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative wonder and Turning Point USA, who was shot and killed in Utah on September 10th.
Charlie Kirk was a “kind” and “compassionate” man, says Kayley McKennanny
There was a text from Kirk at around 6pm on September 9th. Kirk had sent a message about his family. McEnany said he was going to tell him about “Saturday” the following day. Kirk was then shot.
“I was very excited to share it with him, and I never had to send that text,” McNanney says. “When I retreated and thought, ‘What is Charlie Kirk’s legacy? What does he want to say to me?”
“He wants me to tell him he loves the Lord. I know he is with him,” adds McEnany. “I know that, I know, I know, I know, I know that he was with the Lord now and that it was the center of Charlie Kirk’s existence.”
Another national debate has been taking place since Kirk’s death. Critics believe they trafficked people with opinions that promote racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and other prejudice. McEnany has another view.
“Show me where he was hated. If you really saw the breadth of Charlie Kirk’s work, when he got caught up in the question, he always knew he was the questioner he loved deeply,” McEnany said. “He cared – he cared about the person’s soul – kind and compassionate.”
Kaylee McNanney wants to highlight the civic discourse on “Saturday”
In “Saturday America,” McNanney wants to highlight the public discourse that Kirk’s supporters claimed he led on a potential guest list that spans his political age. McKennanny wants to invite all of Maga Republicans to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania), New York City mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani, and democratic socialists.
“When I say the whole spectrum, I mean from people like Mamdani to people who are traditional conservatives,” says McEnany. “How do you survive these ordeals? By talking together, by talking to civil matters,” she continues. The Florida native graduated from Georgetown University and studied abroad at Oxford before being first hired at Fox.
On the network, she started as a production assistant before becoming an associate producer for “Mike Huckaby Show.” McEnany then attended Harvard Law School and also worked as a commentator for CNN.
“I’ve loved it – I don’t use words much, argument – but the discourse I had at Harvard Law School with people I thought were very different from me,” McEnany says. After leaving CNN in August 2017, she was appointed national spokesman for the Republican National Committee, and by 2020 McInanney was hired as a White House press secretary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccj5aaguji
“It’s a moment when you’re literally living history, but for me it was meant to be in that period of 2020,” she says. Critics say she slammed Trump’s misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and more, but Magazine’s fanbase loved the conflict with reporters (she told CNN’s Cate Lancolins in a fiery exchange of “I won’t call activists.”
It seems she hasn’t missed the job.
“I’m happy where I am. I love the Fox family and I can meet the kids,” says McKennanny. She welcomed her third child, Avery Grace, along with her husband, former MLB player Sean Gilmartin in June.
Trump’s “milk toast” jab
At Fox, McNanney’s relationship with Trump was cooled during former President Joe Biden’s sole term. He reported on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ major campaign for the 2024 president, and then denounced her in a May 2023 truth social post, calling her mirquetoast, or weak.
“Kayleigh ‘Milktoast’ McEnany has released Foxnews’ wrong poll numbers. I’m not 25, and I’m up 34 points in Desanctimonious. 25 is great, but not 34.” “She knew that this number was revised upward by the group that polled. Linos and globalists can have her. FOXNEWS should only use real stars!!!”
McEnany downplayed rumours of the rift. “It’s the water under the bridge. It’s what it is. I’m about what’s best for this country, the future of the country,” she says. “I personally don’t take things. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have existed in politics or the media.”
“So when I think the story deserves it, I deal with the president, but mainly because he leads the country in the free world and I do my thing at Fox News, I think it’s a friendly and heartfelt relationship,” adds McEnany.
But in Fox’s eyes, she is a real star. On her show, McNanney welcomes Trump’s new spokesman, Caroline Leavitt. It was when a 28-year-old colleague created McInerney’s “Heirs” when it was announced as his first guest. “I think there is a heavy burden in our country, thanks to her heart, and especially at this point,” McEnany says.
“When I look at Caroline’s tenure at the White House, I see people who are bringing the same accountability I have brought – she knows she loves the people of America.
Maga fan favorite, Leavitt is also known for his tense moments with the traditional press that drew cheers from their base. “You’re a reporter, you should find it.”
In the young mom Levitt, she can see her past self, and Levittt can see the following:
“The core of my existence is not my politics. It’s not. The core of my existence is my faith and the fact that I am in a place that allows me to become my true self,” McEnany says of her employer. “I’ve never been told what to say. I’m just sharing my mind. That’s the only place I want to be.”
On September 20th, McNanney will see her own new future: her own show, on her own terms, Fox News.
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
Contribution: Zac Anderson
