White House says Trump’s intent is never to lie

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday defended a pair of tweets from President Trump that contained unfounded claims about mail-in voting and said the president aimed to always be truthful.

Reporters asked McEnany several times during Thursday’s White House briefing about the tweets posted earlier this week that earned Trump his first fact check from Twitter.

The warning labels on the president’s tweets have drawn considerable ire from the White House and its conservative allies. 

“Are you saying that [Trump] has never lied to the public before?” a reporter asked McEnany.

McEnany also went on the offensive during the briefing, saying that “no one that should be fact-checked more than the mainstream media.”

Trump, in the tweets, took aim at California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order requiring mail-in ballots be sent to all registered voters. The president erroneously claimed the state would send ballots to every resident and repeated his assertions that mail-in voting is riddled with fraud.

Experts say there’s no evidence to back up that claim.

The president announced he would be signing an executive order Thursday that is expected to waive some protections enjoyed by social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook.