Kayleigh McEnany has made a mockery of her promise to not lie

President Donald Trump usually tells reporters that huge plans of his, similar to well being care or immigration proposals, can be unveiled in “two weeks.” It’s a inform — when Trump says one thing is coming in two weeks, you understand it’s nearly definitely not coming in any respect.

Trump’s favourite means of shopping for time has apparently rubbed off on Kayleigh McEnany, his fourth White Home press secretary. Requested throughout Tuesday’s briefing if a well being care plan that Trump has been saying is merely weeks away will lastly be unveiled this week — “there are doubts that such a factor truly exists,” a reporter identified — McEnany stated, with out a shred of irony, that her boss “can be laying out some further well being care steps within the coming, I’d say two weeks.”

That specific change illustrated how at this late date of Trump’s first time period, the White Home press briefings have develop into one thing akin to a parody of Trump’s administration. As a substitute of offering the general public with helpful info, McEnany places on a masterclass of spin, obfuscation, and propaganda that might be amusing if it wasn’t such an affront to the concept the federal authorities ought to work on behalf of the individuals.

It’s arduous to recollect now, however the Obama administration’s press briefings had been criticized, too. For example, in April 2010, a Politico report described the Obama White Home as “thin-skinned, controlling, desirous to go over their heads and stingy with even fundamental info,” noting that whereas Obama promised to be extra open with the press than different presidents, “reporters really feel [his administration] doesn’t reside as much as that pledge.” However Obama-era briefings look like beacons of transparency and cordiality in comparison with the dystopian scenes we’ve develop into accustomed to within the Trump period.

Tuesday’s briefing was a superb instance of the state of the White Home press briefing. What follows is a rundown of a number of the lowlights.

Transferring the goalposts

McEnany’s newest briefing got here hours after the US hit the grim milestone of 200,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths. Trump himself spent the early days of the pandemic saying the virus would go away by itself, however McEnany insisted on Tuesday that the president deserves credit score for retaining the dying toll under 2 million.

“We had been wanting on the prospect of two million individuals probably perishing from the coronavirus on this nation,” McEnany stated in response to a query from Jim Acosta of CNN about what the White Home’s message is to Individuals who maintain administration officers answerable for the mounting dying toll. “The truth that we’ve come nowhere close to that quantity is a testomony to this president taking fast motion.”

These feedback characterize a dramatic relocation of the goalposts from the place Trump put them in the course of the early days of the pandemic in February and March, when he cited 200,000 because the higher restrict of potential coronavirus deaths within the nation.

“If we will maintain that down, as we’re saying, to 100,000, it’s a horrible quantity, possibly even much less, however to 100,000, so we’ve between 100 [thousand] and 200,000, we altogether have performed an excellent job,” Trump stated in late March.

However now that deaths have surpassed 200,000, McEnany is suggesting that any dying toll below the two.2 million deaths an Imperial School research projected if the federal authorities did completely nothing to gradual the unfold is proof of the good job Trump has performed. Earlier than Acosta may drill down, nevertheless, McEnany moved on.

Defending the indefensible

Tuesday’s briefing got here hours after Trump stated at a rally in Swanton, Ohio, that the coronavirus “impacts just about no one.” Actually, Covid-19 is now the third-leading reason behind dying within the US, behind solely coronary heart illness and most cancers.

Trump’s feedback had been extensively condemned and are indefensible on each human and public well being ranges. However that didn’t cease McEnany from attempting.

Requested by Acosta why Trump isn’t telling the general public the reality concerning the pandemic, McEnany accused him of “taking the president out of context” as a result of “you’re making an assertion that he’s not giving vital info when in actual fact he’s.” However that wasn’t in any respect what Acosta stated.

McEnany went on to level out that plenty of states have had no reported circumstances of youngsters dying from Covid. However that’s by no means the identical as saying Covid-19 “impacts just about no one.”

Later, McEnany claimed that Trump “by no means downplayed vital well being info” to the general public concerning the pandemic. However simply weeks in the past, the Washington Put up revealed a recording of a March dialog between Trump and journalist Bob Woodward wherein Trump says of the coronavirus, “I wished to at all times play it down. I nonetheless like enjoying it down, as a result of I don’t need to create a panic.”

However McEnany’s shamelessness isn’t nearly denying that Trump stated issues at rallies or on tape in conversations with journalists. It’s about claiming Trump stated issues he by no means stated.

Requested at one other level if Trump wish to publicly acknowledge or specific regret over the truth that 200,000 Individuals have now died from Covid-19, McEnany claimed that “the president all through this pandemic has performed simply that.” Actually, Trump has been extra apt to say issues like “it’s what it’s” concerning the mounting dying toll than he has been to point out empathy.

As if to show the absurdity of McEnany’s feedback, hours after the briefing, Trump brusquely ignored a reporter who requested him why he hasn’t stated something publicly concerning the grim 200,000 dying milestone.

However when the true Trump received’t suffice, McEnany has no compunction about singing the praises of a fictional one.

Trump’s White Home briefings are pure propaganda

McEnany started her tenure as press secretary by promising reporters she would by no means misinform them. “I’ll by no means misinform you. You have got my phrase on that,” McEnany stated early throughout her first briefing on Could 1.

However McEnany isn’t personally answerable for ruining the White Home press briefing — doing so was fairly actually one of many first acts of the Trump administration. Recall that on Trump’s very first day, then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer took the rostrum to angrily castigate reporters for precisely reporting that the group dimension for Trump’s inauguration was small in comparison with President Obama’s 2009 inauguration, insisting it was “the most important viewers to ever witness an inauguration, interval, each in individual and across the globe.”

That set the tone for all the things that’s adopted, together with McEnany’s tragicomic exhibiting on Tuesday.

Shortly after Tuesday’s briefing ended, McEnany — a Harvard Regulation graduate — posted a tweet accusing Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi of attempting to “use impeachment” to “undo the Structure.”

Utilizing impeachment to undo the Structure isn’t a factor. It’s nonsense, and McEnany ought to know higher. However spreading nonsense within the service of Trumpism is what being the White Home press secretary is all about.

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