McEnany says Trump ‘changed Republican Party forever’ in first post-White House interview
Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says Republicans who want to abolish former President Donald Trump from the party need to look inward and see how his movement “changed the Republican Party forever.”
In her first interview since leaving the White House, McEnany was asked on Fox News Tuesday about the former commander in chief’s remarks at CPAC over the weekend.
“Everything he said strikes at the very heart, I think, as to what made this movement. Pro-family, pro-worker, he changed the Republican Party forever there’s no doubt. And I recognized that early on in 2015, 2016.
“The ideas he was proffering were not things you often heard from Republicans, on trade in particular, on immigration, his resolute stance. And to hear him re-articulate those principles and see that energy, he’s changed this party for a long time to come in a way that’s very positive,” she said.
McEnany then turned her attention toward members of the party that wanted to remove the former president from its ranks.
“He has grown this party in a way that I think members of the Republican party should recognize,” she said, adding. “He got the highest percentage of the black vote of any Republican candidate running for national office in 20 years. Highest percentage of the Hispanic vote of any Republican running for office in 16 years.
“He has made this party more inclusive, more expansive, more welcoming and I think that Republicans on the Hill who are so quick to say, ‘President Trump doesn’t have a place in this party,’ they need to look at the numbers and why these new voters that aren’t typically Republican voters came to the party.”
The reason, she said, was “because he offered economic hope and opportunity to a lot of people that did not have that.”
McEnany also said she was left in “shock” when she saw the violence unfold in the Capitol riot in January, during what she expected to be a peaceful protest.
“I think at the beginning of the day, before everyone went to the rally, everyone was expecting peace,” McEnany said.
“We had been to hundreds of rallies — I’ve probably been to hundreds at this point, certainly many dozens — and they were nothing but peaceful events, and we expected that day to be the same.”
“And then as those events transpired, it was disbelief, shock, somber, sad, horrified by the violence, and it was a very hard, difficult day in the White House, there is no doubt,” she said, according to an excerpt of the interview that will air later Tuesday on “The Faulkner Focus.”
McEnany said many other White House staffers had the same reaction as they watched a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters descend on the Capitol Jan. 6 as lawmakers were certifying the Electoral College vote for President Biden.
“It was a, I should say, widespread feeling, synonymous feeling, completely,” she said. “A feeling that everyone felt, the — just completely condemning the actions of that day. Horrified and very somber.”