Just two days after our flashback to Kayleigh McEnany insisting that Donald Trump will make sure the coronavirus never reaches America, she has become his fourth press secretary in a little over three years, now that former “best person” Stephanie Grisham has left the job after nine months.
On Sunday, a tweet from CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski about McEnany caught our eye and we posted it. It's not clear if he had any advance inkling of her appointment. In the February 25th clip he posted, McEnany tells Fox's since-fired Trish Regan, "We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here ... and isn't that refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama."
On the same day Larry Kudlow said coronavirus was “contained” on Feb. 25th, Trump’s campaign spox made an even more bold claim.
— andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) April 4, 2020
“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." pic.twitter.com/O0DDH3Rvkw
McEnany has responded like a true Trumper: failing to take responsibility, deflecting and dishonestly claiming she was taken out of context, that she was talking about Trump's China travel ban. Sadly for her, her unqualified claim that Trump has kept out the coronavirus, presumably via his travel ban, is on video for all to see forever. Since then, the death toll in the United States has risen to over 10,000 and the U.S. leads the world in the number of confirmed cases. Most of us can remember that we had no such pandemic under President Obama.
As Kaczynski notes in his tweet, on the same day that McEnany insisted the coronavirus would never come here, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said the coronavirus was “contained … pretty close to airtight.”
Kaczynski had another McEnany flashback to remind us about today. This is a 2012 charmer from her:
How I Met Your Brother -- Never mind, forgot he's still in that hut in Kenya. #ObamaTVShows
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) August 30, 2012
Remember when Trump promised, "I’m going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people. We want top of the line professionals?" Media Matters has more on what passes for the latest “top of the line professional” to serve as press secretary:
- On March 11, McEnany appeared on Fox Business and said that the campaign was still intending to hold rallies despite concerns about coronavirus. When she was repeatedly told that other campaigns are not holding events and that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had in effect advised against holding rallies, McEnany's responded, “The president is the best authority on this issue.”
- On March 12, McEnany wrote that “1 million tests have already been distributed, with 4 million distributed by the end of the week.” As of today, the COVID Tracking Project lists 1.95 million total tests done in the United States to date. On March 12, the project tweeted that just 10,000 people had been tested.
- McEnany misleadingly claimed that Trump’s “White House did NOT eliminate pandemic office.” Here are the facts.
And those are just some of her greatest whoppers in March. Here are a few of her earlier ones:
- McEnany accused Obama of golfing after journalist Daniel Pearl's murder. Pearl was murdered in Pakistan in 2002.
- When Trump interrupted a phone call with a foreign leader in 2017 to flirt with a female reporter, McEnany told CNN, “The press should be applauding the fact that he's bringing reporters into the Oval Office, calling them out and including them.”
There are many, many more where those came from.
Trump's third press secretary, Grisham, distinguished herself in her nine-month stint by agreeing with Dear Leader that Never Trump Republicans "deserve" to be called "human scum" and never holding a single press briefing.
Any bets on how long McEnany lasts before we’re on to the fifth “best person” in the job?
McEnany is not much different than those who preceded her. She’s a hyper-partisan motor mouth like Sarah Sanders and Stephanie Grisham. She’s also quite similar to Kellyanne Conway who refuses the to take the job. They get their face on some news segment and aggressively filibuster the segment with ridiculous Trump knob polishing. On Fox News they let them talk. On other outlets the shills brashly talk down the reporters getting even nasty accusing them of not giving them their due uninterrupted air time.
Unfortunately for McEnany or anyone who takes the White House press secretary job, there’s really not much to do. Trump is a mentally ill clinical narcissist drawn to a microphone like flies to 💩. Eventually they’ll get rolled out because in the fantasy Trump’s built around his deep insecurities there’s nobody who’s great enough to speak for him but himself.
Well, I have to agree that nobody can beat her at staring into the headlights as she babbles on before she gets her brain in gear.
Seems she’s promised to hold daily briefings … Good heavens! Journalists should be given bonuses for exposing themselves to a daily dose of the McEnany inanity virus (MIV), exposure to which is dangerous to one’s cerebral capabilities. The only vaccine (facts and the ability to respect them) is in desperately short supply.
