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White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany triggered rage among the media class Wednesday by exposing their known duplicity and hypocrisy.
Hit with a gotcha’ question from Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason, she replied by swinging a gotcha’ question right back at him.
“Kayleigh, in a previous life, before you were press secretary, you worked for the campaign. And you made a comment, I believe on Fox, in which you said President Trump will not allow the coronavirus to come to this country. Given what has happened since then, obviously, would you like to take that back?” Mason asked during a briefing.
McEnany responded by arguing her Feb. 25th comments were taken out of context and listing off examples of the left-wing mainstream establishment media complex making glaringly false predictions about the coronavirus and its impact on American society.
Watch (disable your adblocker if the video doesn’t appear):
“Well, first let me note, I was asked a question on Fox Business about the president’s travel restrictions,” she said. “I noted what was the intent behind those travel restrictions, which is, we will not see the coronavirus come here. We will not see terrorism come here, referring to an earlier set of travel restrictions. I guess I would turn the question back on the media and ask similar questions.”
She then turned to giving the media a dose of their own medicine.
“Does Vox want to take back that they proclaim that the coronavirus would not be a deadly pandemic? Does the Washington Post want to take back that they told Americans to, ‘get a grip, the flu is bigger than the coronavirus?’ Does the Washington Post, likewise, want to take back that, ‘Our brains are causing us to exaggerate the threat of the Coronavirus?'”
“Does the New York Times want to take back that, ‘Fear of the virus may be spreading faster than the virus itself?’ Does NPR want to take back that the flu was a much bigger threat than the Coronavirus? And finally, once again, the Washington Post. Would they like to take back that the government should not respond aggressively to the virus? I’ll leave you with those questions and maybe you’ll have some answers in a few days?”
McEnany walked off after thanking the press for their time, provoking one unnamed reporter into yelling, “You were prepared for that!”
Given how often modern “journalists” fail at their duties, it didn’t come as a shocker that they would take offense to someone being prepared for their job.
The cry from a journalist of “You were prepared for that!” as she walks off is really one for the ages. https://t.co/JcVMAApSDM
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) May 7, 2020
Following the presser, more backlash began to brew, particularly from CNN, where senior reporter Oliver Darcy accused McEnany of trotting out cherry-picked quotes.
“Instead of taking responsibility for her comment, which came on February 25 during a Fox Business appearance, McEnany sought to turn the tables on the news media,” he kvetched in CNN’s notoriously unreliable “Reliable Sources” newsletter.
“She cited headlines suggesting the press had downplayed the virus. Of course, cherrypicking headlines from January and early February, when the reality of the situation was far different than when she made her comments in late February, was deceitful.”
The verb “cherrypicking” suggests that he thinks just a handful of media outlets ran with the false coronavirus narrative. But that couldn’t be further from the truth:
— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) March 30, 2020
He, like Mason, also ignored the context of the press secretary’s remarks.
Speaking on Feb. 25 with since-terminated Fox Business Network host Trish Regan, McEnany defended President Donald Trump’s travel ban on China (and Europe) from left-wing criticism.
“Looking at the coronavirus, and with the president saying, ‘look, we’re not going to be taking in people from China right now,’ isn’t it just a matter of protecting our national security being really at stake, and he’s sort of the first line of defense there,” Regan had asked her.
“Absolutely, this president will always put America first, he will always protect American citizens,” McEnany had replied. “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here, we will not see terrorism, and isn’t that refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of Barack Obama?”
The media immediately took her words out of context, leading to her to post a tweet thread in which she explained that her remarks had been in reference to the president’s travel bans.
Look:
(1/4) Context matters. Ridiculous spin @KFILE
When I said this, @realDonaldTrump had already taken early action: assembled task force & issued travel restrictions
Meanwhile, Biden called the President’s action “xenophobic” Pelosi said “everything is fine” & “Come to Chinatown” https://t.co/BIkN2WYo9Q
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) April 4, 2020
(2/4): I was asked about travel restrictions & stated the intent of those restrictions: “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here”
DR. FAUCI articulated this intent: “What we’re doing now with the other travel restrictions – so you block infections from coming in”
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) April 4, 2020
(3/4) And I was right. Dr. Fauci has said the travel restrictions on China were a “very smart move” and “the right public health call.”
Dr. Fauci said there is “no question” there would be more US cases if President Trump didn’t take the action I defended & Biden criticized!
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) April 4, 2020
(4/4) President Trump works to defeat the invisible enemy while you mislead the nation!
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) April 4, 2020
In other words, the media lied … again.
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