Kayleigh McEnany - For Such a Time as This: My Faith Journey through the White House and Beyond

A LIBERATIO PROTOCOL BOOK

An Imprint of Post Hill Press

For Such a Time as This:

My Faith Journey through the White House and Beyond

2021 by Kayleigh McEnany

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-63758-235-0

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-63758-236-7

Cover photo by Bryan Manicchia

Cover design by Cody Corcoran

This is a work of nonfiction. All people, locations, events, and situations are portrayed to the best of the authors memory.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Post Hill Press

New York Nashville

posthillpress.com

Published in the United States of America

For my daughter, Baby Blake.

Your smile melts my heart.

Dream big, find your purpose, and then move mountains.

You were made for such a time as this.

Contents

Chapter 1

We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

B eams of sunlight poured through the shutters of my bedroom window. My eyes were closed, but I was already awake as I waited for my official wake-up callthe beautiful little cry of my six-month-old daughter. As young parents, Sean and I had learned that there was no more sleeping in. Baby Blake always made sure Ma-Ma and Da-Da were both up at the crack of dawn!

But I didnt mind it. I knew my time at home in Florida was dwindling, and I would soon have to head back to our nations capital. This was one of my first weekends home since taking the job of White House press secretary, and I tried to cherish every moment.

When I first took the job, I had gone a full three weeks without seeing Blake. I missed her very first Easter. She missed my 32nd birthday. So that morning, I relished the idea of walking under the small crystal chandelier I had purchased for her and scooping her up from her crib, positioned just beneath a glimmering gold sign that read Let her sleep. For when she wakes, she will move mountains.

On that Sunday morning, before Blakes cry could summon her parents, I glanced at the illuminated baby monitor and then down at my phone. I saw a voicemail and a text message from a Tampa Police Department detective. Sorry to bother you. Can you call me when you get a moment? I have important information to give you, the text read. I immediately called the detective, a bit alarmed at the early morning messages.

Kayleigh, are you at your house in Tampa? he asked me.

Yes, I am, I replied.

We received a tip last night, and we have reason to believe someone is targeting your home, calling for protesters to burn it down. Stay where you are. Dont leave the house. I am coming your way, he said.

My stomach sank. In the past, my family had received hate mail and intimidating phone calls. I knew this had to be taken seriously. My immediate concern was for my daughter and my husband. I was about to head to the Orlando airport in just a few hours. How in the world could I leave my family behind knowing that we were now a target?

In spite of my fear, fortunately, my house would not be the building I watched burn on the evening of May 31st. Instead, the world would soon watch a different, historic building, St. Johns Church, lit ablaze as flames climbed high into the night sky during yet another evening of violent riots across the nation. Twenty-four hours after St. Johns burned, I would be standing at the yellow and white church alongside President Trump as he proudly held a Bible in one of the most iconic photos of his presidency.

A few days before the riots began, a nine-minute, twenty-nine-second video depicting the murder of George Floyd filled Americas television screens. I was with President Trump that Wednesday when he first watched the video. We had just landed in Washington, DC, after a disappointing trip to Cape Canaveral, Florida, where we had hoped to watch the launch of SpaceX Dragon Capsule. It would have been the first launch of American astronauts into space in nearly a decade and a much-needed morale boost for a grieving country. Scrubbed due to weather, we landed at Joint Base Andrews (JBA) without the win we had anticipated.

Standing with President Trump in his personal office space on Air Force One, we watched the video of Floyds killing together. The president shook his head as he took in the brutal images, indignant over the injustice he was watching. That evening, President Trump announced that he had asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to expedite their investigation into the very sad and tragic death in Minnesota of George Floyd.

My heart goes out to Georges family and friends. Justice will be served! he wrote.

Despite the Floyd familys emphatic calls for peace, violent riots besieged the nation, including in my hometown of Tampa. My family and I watched on our televisions as part of our city went up in flames.

All of these images played in my mind as I waited for the detective to reach my home that last Sunday morning in May. When the detective arrived, he sat at my glass kitchen table and detailed that someone had posted a picture of the Mobil gas station on fire alongside my home address. Does your family have a place to go? You need to get out of here, the detective instructed. We did just that. The detective departed, and I began to pack a bag for Blake, tossing her pink plastic bottles and brightly colored clothing into a bag. I felt an urgency to leave.

While I was packing, I received a call from my boss, President Trump. He was rightfully perturbed by a piece in the New York Times . The Times falsely stated that [a]s several more cities erupted in street protests on Friday night after the killing of George Floyd. Mr. Trump made no appeal for calm.

That is completely inaccurate, I told President Trump. I will try and get it fixed.

Not only had President Trump called for peace, he spent almost ten minutes of his speech at Kennedy Space Center pleading for unity and calm.

But knowing that the nation was also witnessing American carnage in our streets, President Trump made the first portion of his speech a call for peace and justice. He called the death of George Floyd a grave tragedy and then said this: I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace and I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack and menace. Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos, are the mission at hand. Unsurprisingly, none of this made it into the New York Times piece. Instead, a blatant falsehood did, alleging President Trump had not made a call for calm.

I made these points to the president during our phone call that Sunday morning and then continued to prepare my family to leave our home. Sean packed up his guns, and I gathered our valuables. We wanted to make sure that we removed our important items in the event our house was ransacked. As my husband helped to load our bags into his black Ford F-250 truck, I fielded more calls from both the president and the reporter, imploring the writer to change his story to reflect the truth while giving the president regular updates on my progress. I also received a text message from my principal assistant press secretary, Chad Gilmartin: Let me know if you want Lyndee [my executive assistant] and I to find someone to drive you from the airport home, if you dont want to take an Uber!