Kaylee McEnany is slick, I'll give her that. But she's also one of the most poised and erudite liars on the planet.
This has made her something of a hero among those in the Right Wing Media Cult. They like seeing her do battle with the press gaggle, as if somehow doing battle with the press was the White House Press Secretary's job. Under Trump, the Press Secretary's role has gone from spin-doctoring (Spicer), to outright lies (Huckabee-Sanders), to no dissemination of information at all (2018-2019), and finally outright hostility to the entire press corps (McEnany). And this devolution of both professionalism and morality may make the Cult believe she is the ultimate warrior, but she is also the ultimate liar.
Someone I was "debating" with on Facebook turned me on to the topic. I already debunked McEnany in my blog post from October 6, when I dragged Jay Weber down for believing that McEnany's retorts were at all accurate. But clearly, based on my interactions with this particular Facebook dude, she needed taking down further.
I asked this guy, "Can you cite one example of when she [McEnany] says something which proves 'the media' (as if she weren't a member of such) should not be trusted?" He came back at me with three YouTube links of McEnany doing battle with the White House Press Corps.
I'll bet he actually thought he achieved something by sending me these links. All he really did was give me a sample to dissect and debunk.
I'll use McEnany's press conference from July 1st 2020. The other two are interesting, but the July one is the juiciest. She went off on a screed regarding CHAZ in Seattle, and condemned "autonomous zones." But it was the questions she took afterward where she really gave out the bullshit.
When she was asked about the Russian bounties on American troops, she responded with, "Make no mistake that this administration has acted tough on Russia, always makes the decision that makes the best decision for our troops, like killing general Soleimani, who killed 600 American troops, maimed thousands of others, and Al Baghdadi. We always act in the best interest of our troops, but this is unverified still as of this moment."
What the HELL does the Iranian general Soleimani and the Caliph of ISIS Al Baghdadi have to do with Russia? Not a damn thing, of course. McEnany is using the only examples of where she thinks the president has acted to protect American troops, except killing Soleimani was largely seen by the international community as a capital crime - a violation of Iraq's national sovereignty, and a deliberate attack upon Iran, which many people saw at the time as a potential "wag the dog" type of scenario. THAT'S acting in the best interest of our troops? By potentially starting another politically-based war? And the killing of Al Baghdadi, while good, is an uncomfortable reminder that the U.S. then bailed on our Kurdish allies, going back on our word and jeopardizing our troops yet again! And that's the BEST McEnany had to offer on the subject; two irrelevant examples which illustrate that Trump doesn't know what the FUCK he's doing!
One of her very next questions was even more revealing. It came from someone she called on named "Josh," which I take to be Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post.
Josh: "Kaylee, why does the president call Black Lives Matter a 'symbol of hate?'"
McEnany: "Well, what the president was noting is that, uh that symbol, um, when you look at some of the things chanted by Black Lives Matter, like 'pigs in a blanket fry 'em like bacon,' um, that's not an acceptable phrase to paint on our streets. Look, he agrees that all black lives matter, including that of Officer David Dorn, Patrick Underwood, two officers whose lives were tragically taken amid these riots. All black lives do matter, he agrees with that sentiment, but what he doesn't agree with is an organization that chants, 'pigs in a blanket fry 'em like bacon' about our police officers, our valiant heroes, who are out on the streets protecting us every day."
Bullshit! McEnany is repeating a chant that was done once, and only once, way, way back in 2015 at a protest in St. Paul, Minnesota. Yes, it was a BLM protest, and yes, some of them did chant 'pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon.' But the chant was never adopted by BLM as a whole, never repeated since, and never used at all during the protests of 2020 which followed the killing of George Floyd.
It is NOT an official chant. It was NEVER an official chant.
That hasn't stopped it from being repeated on Fox News, in McEnany's press briefings, and just about everywhere else in the Right Wing Media Cult for most of 2020. It was even repeated by Trump during his first "debate" with Joe Biden.
This is typical of how the RWM Cult tries to spin things relating to BLM or anything else liberals rightly stand for. They take one, outlier example, and repeat it so often they make it seem like everyone in the movement is saying it all the time.
No, it wasn't cool that anyone chanted it in the first place back in 2015. They also made the mistake of allowing themselves to be filmed so that YouTube repeated the incident over and over for years. But the phrase was NEVER repeated. BLM showed discipline and resolve by never repeating that mistake again.
Not that the Right Wing Media Cult would ever notice.
Josh: "Americans of all races have protested in all 50 states, uh, around that phrase, 'black lives matter,' and the president is here, calling it a 'symbol of hate?'"
McEnany: "He's talking about the organization. Um, I would note to you that the greater New York BLM president has said, 'If this country doesn't give us what we want, that we will burn down the system, and I could be speaking literally.' I'd call that a pretty hateful statement."
Josh: "But Kaylee, we're not talking about the organization. In his Tweet, he says the words. He says the words, 'black lives matter.'"
McEnany: "What's the name of the organization, again?"
Josh: "Black Lives Matter."
McEnany: "Thank you. You just answered my question."
But you didn't answer his, Kaylee! As it turns out, Josh was absolutely right! Trump was not criticizing the organization (and if he were, that would be just as bad). He was, in fact, criticizing the words themselves. He was criticizing them being painted on New York's Fifth Avenue. See for yourself:
Ben: "Regarding Coronavirus, earlier today the president said, 'I think that at some point that's going to just disappear, I hope.' Is hoping that it will disappear the president's strategy at this point?"
McEnany: "No, the president's confident that it will disappear. He's confident that he's put together a revolutionary, first-class team that is going to break through bureaucracy and get us a vaccine. He's confident that that will lead us to a place where we won't have Covid on our hands, and there's very pleasing news from Pfizer and BioIntech..."
This is almost painful to listen to after seeing the catastrophic failures which resulted later on. The president himself got covid, no thanks to his "revolutionary, first-class team," to say nothing of the many members of his staff, and the many members of Mile Pence's staff who got Covid-19 themselves, even though they are supposedly on the pandemic response team!
Ben: "Dr. Fauci says we are heading towards 100,000 cases per day. So why does the president have evidence that it would just disappear? His statement with the vaccine that it's just disappearing?"
McEnany: "One thing that I would note with regard to cases, we're aware that there are embers in the country, we're aware that there are places with rising cases and that's why Dr. Burkes is on the ground and others, we're continually assessing that. But one thing I would note is just that when you do test more people you do identify more cases. And that is rapidly ongoing. We're testing more than a half a million people per day. To give you an example, on April 6th, really the height of the pandemic, we were doing 151.525 tests. Um, one day, you know, Thursday is the number I have here, we conducted 637,587 tests. So when you have a more than five-fold increase in tests, you have a greater identification of cases."
Holy shit! She was actually using that old, stupid rationality of "If there weren't so many tests, there wouldn't be so many cases!" What a crock! Why, at this point, didn't someone in the White House Press Office not jump out and tackle her off the podium and drag her away before she said something even more stupid?!
Later on, McEnany is asked, "The president has come under criticism this week for statements that he's has made that his detractors say are 'dog whistles' to a certain segment of his base that he is trying to gin up for his reelection. Those comments include 'Kung flu,' or 'heritage' while talking about Confederate statues, and most recently they include the video, that I know you discussed in here the other day, but the video of a supporter of his using the term 'white power.' So why hasn't the president denounced that video, and called that a hateful statement?"
McEnany: "The president took down that video. That deletion speaks strongly. What I would note, the president has repeatedly condemned hate. August of 2019, 'In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America.' On April of 2019, 'We have no tolerance for those who disrupt this peace and we condemn all hate and violence, especially in our places of worship.' August 2018 'I condemn all types of racism.' He's repeatedly done this..."
"But why hasn't he denounced that specific video and said that that is hateful language that was used in it?"
McEnany: "He deleted it. The deletion speaks for itself. His repeated condemnations of hate speak for themselves, and uh, this is a president who has repeatedly condemned hate and repeatedly encouraged.. for us all to come together."
Holy shit! The deletion speaks for itself?! BULLSHIT! You know what would speak for itself? Not putting the fucking racist video up on Twitter in the first place!!!
And whenever Kaylee is confronted with Trump's obvious racism, she always gives this standard dodge: She rattles off the same-old list of condemnations that Trump read off of a teleprompter, and even those are questionable. Trump does just fine when reading off of a teleprompter, but when he needs to condemn racism from the heart, he just can't bring himself to do it! McEnany's quote from 2017 is precisely when Trump infamously said that there was bad behavior in Charlottesville "on both sides." So much for that one! Trump's quote from 2019 was when he was goaded into finally making that statement by a mass shooting at a Walmart in Texas by a white supremacist who happened to be a big fan of Trump! Trump has had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into making anti-racist statements. And then McEnany dares to collect all those rare occasions and read them off to any reporter who dares raise a more recent example of Trump being a racist shithead!
Some of us were actually paying attention back then, Kaylee!
The Right Wing Media Cult, of which McEnany is a member, apparently wasn't.
Eric
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