With a wide grin, Fox News host Harris Faulkner welcomed Big Lie purveyor Kayleigh McEnany today into the “Fox family,” without specifying what, exactly, that entails.
As I previously wrote when news broke that McEnany was likely to join Fox News, “Other than the boss she shilled for, it’s hard to think of a more deceitful and dishonest person” than Trump’s former “press secretary.” She’s so dishonest that Fox News’ own Neil Cavuto cut away from her November 9, 2020 press conference, saying, “I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this,” as she baselessly accused Democrats of welcoming voter fraud and illegal voting.”
But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. When Donald Trump said, “I wish her well,” after the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein cohort Ghislaine Maxwell, McEnany claimed her boss meant he didn’t want her to commit suicide.
Then there were gross misstatements about the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic. On February 25, 2020, she said, on Fox Business Network, “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here … and isn't it refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama." 200,000 American deaths from coronavirus later, she shrugged them off as a success, saying, “The fact that we have come nowhere near 2 million deaths is a testament to this president taking immediate action.”
.@acosta: What do you say to Americans who blame this administration for 200,000 Covid deaths?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2020
McENANY: The fact that we have come nowhere near 2 million deaths is a testament to this president taking immediate action pic.twitter.com/Y5rHBLanG6
CNN anchor Jake Tapper said he refused to have McEnany on his show because she "lies the way that, you know, most people breathe. ...She can’t acknowledge reality.”
Cavuto notwithstanding, McEnany repeatedly told the Big Lie, that Donald Trump did not lose the presidential election, on Fox. From Media Matters:
Perhaps the worst lie McEnany told was one that was also promoted all over Fox News: that the 2020 election may have been stolen from Trump, which ultimately led to a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. McEnany, appearing in one or two of her roles (sometimes it got confusing), pushed that lie in numerous Fox appearances after Trump lost the 2020 election, appearing on Hannity 20 times during that period. As a sign of McEnany’s priorities, she gave only three press briefings (which were also full of lies) in her official White House capacity during the same time period.
Despite overtly working to subvert American democracy and our electoral system, Fox News evidently thinks McEnany is a great fit. Whatever stumbling block previously got in the way of McEnany's Fox gig has now been surmounted.
At the end of the first part of her interview with McEnany today, Faulkner announced, “It is my distinct pleasure today to welcome Kayleigh McEnany to the Fox family.”
Will she get a show of her own or just appear as some kind of credible expert? Maybe that’s still to be determined. Faulkner merely said, “We will be seeing much more of her in the future.”
You can watch what Faulkner put forth as happy news below, from the March 2, 2021 The Faulkner Focus.
After airing the first part of her interview with Kayleigh McEnany, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner makes this announcement:
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 2, 2021
"It is my distinct pleasure today to welcome Kayleigh Mcenany to the Fox family. We'll be seeing much more of her in the future." pic.twitter.com/qB5VUKZa3L
We haven’t even begun to see the revelations of the Trump cabal’s complete obeisance to Uncle Vlad, the blackmail material they used against fellow Republicans, and the self-enriching ‘deals’ with China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others, let alone the evidence presented in court that damns the false and criminal messiah Fox ‘News’ aided and abetted at every turn.
Handled carefully, the transition to a forward looking platform need not be too traumatic. But hiring and retaining the likes of McEnany and Chaffetz is certainly no way to go about it.