#LyingKayleighMcEnany developed a sudden concern for truth and ethics just in time to help Fox News distract from President Joe Biden’s wildly successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic and blame sDr. Anthony Fauci for Donald Trump’s spectacular mismanagement.
To be clear, #LyingKayleighMcEnany is not only a compulsive liar, herself, she also promotes Donald Trump’s lies and falsehoods. But Lachlan Murdoch’s “center right” Fox News not only allows her to spout MAGA propaganda without the nuisance of any fact checking. Here, her two cohosts helped her out.
The propaganda plan was to use a batch of Fauci emails released as a result of a FOIA request by Buzzfeed as “proof” that he funded the research that developed COVID-19 and is therefore culpable.
FactCheck.org has the backstory:
At issue is whether the National Institutes of Health funded research on bat coronaviruses that could have caused a pathogen to become more infectious to humans and, separately, if SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes the disease COVID-19 — transferred naturally from bats to humans, possibly through an intermediate host animal, or if a virus, a naturally occurring one or a lab-enhanced one, was accidentally released from the Wuhan lab.
…
In 2014, the NIH awarded a grant to the U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance to study the risk of the future emergence of coronaviruses from bats. In 2019, the project was renewed for another five years, but it was canceled in April 2020 — three months after the first case of the coronavirus was confirmed in the U.S.
EcoHealth ultimately received $3.7 million over six years from the NIH and distributed nearly $600,000 of that total to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, a collaborator on the project, pre-approved by NIH.
Never mind that their beloved Donald Trump was in charge of the country at the time of the virus outbreak, the Fox propagandists have decided to blame and smear and even endanger Dr. Fauci in service of rewriting the history of Trump’s spectacular mishandling of the pandemic.
First up, McEnany suggested Fauci covered up what was happening in China, based on the fact that he received an email in March saying that China was lying about its number of COVID deaths and that the pandemic was a huge threat. She couldn’t be bothered with providing any context. Nor did anyone ask her for it.
And never mind that Lying McEnany’s former boss, Donald Trump was caught on tape admitting he deliberately misled the public about the COVID threat. Trump-worshiper Harris Faulkner said, “It breaks my brain trying to figure out where Dr. Fauci really was on these issues because we don’t know.”
Faulkner said in her serious voice, “What he was saying was directly affecting what the rest of us were doing.”
Never mind that Trump promoted a quack’s treatment and even the very dangerous injecting of bleach.
That wasn't enough Fauci-smearing for this gang. “My big thing is, I think we’re underestimating his strategic ability here. I really do,” Faulkner continued. “It sounds a little crazy at times, what he’s saying but, you know, OK: “China would never kill its own people.” Of course it would!!! Tiananmen Square – I mean it’s a communist nation. I won’t even get into that. But that’s not what anyone’s pointing a finger to.”
Oh, no, not pointing a finger, just hinting.
“So he is shell game: Don’t look here, look over here,” Faulkner added.
Project much, ladies? While vilifying Fauci, they distracted from Trump having played favorites in awarding coronavirus contracts and putting his totally inept son-in-law in charge of awarding them.
McEnany called it a “huge deal” that Fauci emailed with Chinese health officials, “saying we are going to get through this together, don’t worry.” Again, no context provided or asked for.
Not-pointing-a-finger Faulkner went on to suggest there was some kind of financial hanky-panky. Referring to EcoHealth grant, Harris said, “We don’t know how the money was used. … But if you put enough money on the table, maybe there might be a little play in that. Maybe some expectation. We don’t know.”
Irony alert! That's when Lying Kayleigh McEnany claimed to care about the truth. “There needs to be an investigation into this, hugely. After Dr. Fauci stood at that podium and lied to the nation about the virus originating naturally, guess what? He gave money to the Wuhan lab that thanked him, using his respected voice to maybe cover up the fact that it started in the lab.”
The other cohost, Emily Compagno, set the table for any debunking of this conspiracy theory. “The conflict of interest is absolutely overwhelming. Unfortunately, no investigation will likely uncover the kinds of results we can depend on.”
“Agreed,” Faulkner said.
You can watch the dishonest and dangerous rhetoric Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch pay for below, from the June 3, 2021 Outnumbered.
(H/T reader Eric Jefferson)
Incidentally, Toole took the phrase from Jonathon Swift (of Gulliver’s Travels fame) in essay ‘Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting’: “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”