Reporters questioned Kayleigh McEnany on Monday over Donald Trump’s notable absence as riots took place across the country this past week, and the press secretary was quick to come to her boss’s defense.

Despite the fact that previous presidents have addressed the nation during periods of civil unrest, Trump only publicly responded to riots this week through a string of Twitter posts and a brief statement while he was watching the rocket launch in Florida.

After McEnany addressed the protests in her opening remarks, NBC White House correspondent Geoff Bennett said, “The country is in crisis. There’s a global pandemic that has claim more than 100,000 lives, at least 40 million people are unemployed, there are now protests and racial tension ripping apart many cities.”

“Where is the president?” he asked. “Why has he not delivered an address to the nation as many of his predecessors have in a time of domestic crisis?”

McEnany responded, “The president has delivered multiple statements on this. The president, as recently as 48 hours ago, was out talking about what a tragedy the death of George Floyd was, how it has weighed on his heart, and how he encourages peace and lawfulness in our streets in peaceful protest. So he has said that repeatedly and made many statements to this effect.”

“But what I would note is continual statements, as he’s made day and day and day and day again, they don’t stop anarchy,” she continued. “What stops anarchy is action, and that’s what the president is working on right now.”

Later on in the press briefing, USA Today White House correspondent David Jackson told McEnany, “There is a perception that the president is hiding in the bunker on the racial protest issue. He was literally put in a bunker on Friday night by the Secret Service.”

“I mean, would you agree that he’s hiding out on this issue?” he asked, prompting McEnany to reply, “I would not. I would not agree with that at all.”

“Look, I was on the phone with the president at least half a dozen times yesterday, and every time I talked to him he was telling me about a different action he had taken, whether it was talking to a governor about this, or a foreign leader about ventilators. This president has been leading,” she claimed. “He met with general yesterday, he’s each and every moment taking another action to try to solve and resolve what we’ve seen in our streets.”

“He’s acting, he’s hard at work,” McEnany concluded.

WATCH:

Question: He was literally put in a bunker Friday by the secret service. Would you agree that he’s hiding out on this issue?
Kayleigh: I was on the phone with the President a half a dozen times and every time I talked to him, he was telling me about a different action he’s taken pic.twitter.com/raQ45Gqdtb

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) June 1, 2020