Kayleigh McEnany, Donald Trump’s current White House press secretary, has been in the job since April 2020.
Before she was appointed to the role McEnany was known as an outspoken conservative and Trump loyalist, who spread racist conspiracy about Barack Obama and lying on Trump’s behalf.
That was before she got the job and since then, in the space of fewer than 12 months she had wracked up quite the rap sheet of fibs and mistruths.
At her very first White House press briefing, Trump’s spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany pledged never to lie.
She said:
I will never lie to you. You have my word on that.
We all know that didn’t turn out to be the case and, like her boss, she’s prone to wild exaggerations.
For instance, McEnany once claimed that Trump is the "most informed person on planet earth when it comes to the threats we face".
She said this, without irony, after being questioned about reports that Trump failed to read a crucial military intelligence report alleging that Russian forces paid members of the Taliban to murder US troops in Afghanistan.
It has also been reported that the US National Security Council mentions Trump's name in every paragraph of their briefings in an attempt to retain his attention.
Here’s Kayleigh McEnany characterizing Trump as “the most informed person on planet Earth when it comes to the threats we face” and somehow not bursting into laughter pic.twitter.com/rXxnlyZhUg
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 30, 2020
So much for being the most informed man on planet earth.
She also tried to defend Trump's lie that coronavirus affects "virtually nobody".
At a rally in Ohio, Trump said:
We now know the disease. We didn't know it. Now we know it. It affects elderly people. Elderly people with heart problems and other problems. But they have other problems, that's what it really affects, that's it. You know in some states, thousands of people... nobody young. Below the age of 18, like nobody. They have a strong immune system, who knows. But it affects virtually nobody.
Whether or not Trump was purely referring to young people, this isn't true – and Trump knows it. As a reporter pointed out to McEnany, Trump acknowledged that young people can be affected by the virus while speaking to journalist Bob Woodward.
But rather than correcting Trump's erroneous claim, McEnany said:
The president is telling people the truth. ... You're taking the president out of context.
McEnany twists herself into a knot trying to defend Trump's lie that coronavirus "affects virtually nobody" pic.twitter.com/aBHdKRmJRE
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2020
McEnany also used the "taken out of context" line to try to justify Trump telling Americans to inject disinfectant.
Here's what Trump said at a coronavirus press briefing:
I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute — one minute — and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?
Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it'd be interesting to check that. So you're going to have to use medical doctors with — but it sounds interesting to me.
Horrifying. Never, ever put disinfectant anywhere near your insides.
And here's what McEnany said when asked about it:
President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasised again during yesterdays' briefing. Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines.
Yes, it's the media who are irresponsible...
In May 2020, she claimed that the Mueller report ended with "the complete and total exoneration of president Trump".
Actually, the Mueller report – or the Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election, as it's officially known – concluded that "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him".
Again, McEnany's line parroted one of Trump's: namely, "no collusion, no obstruction".
She also claimed that Trump "never" downplayed coronavirus.
McEnany refuted the claim made in Woodward's book Rage that Trump deliberately downplayed the threat of coronavirus to avoid creating a panic. She said:
The president never downplayed the virus, once again. The president expressed calm. The president was serious about this.
Not only are there recordings of Trump's conversations with Woodward, but also ample evidence that he did.
For instance, he repeatedly likened coronavirus to the flu, despite privately admitting it's "more deadly".
McEnany also defended Trump for clearing Black Lives Matter protesters from Lafayette Park.
In one of his most controversial acts as president, Trump made a speech at the White House while protesters were forcibly removed from the surrounding areas. McEnany defended Trump after he did this, and denied reports that police used tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters.
The US Park Police also deny this, although they admitted to using pepper spray on protesters. This denial remains controversial.
McEnany said:
There's no regrets on the part of the White House.
She added that the behaviour of the protesters was "unacceptable" and that the White House "stands by [the] actions" of the police in response.
Kayleigh McEnany's ridiculous statements have not gone unnoticed by those in the Biden camp.
In fact, a campaign advert released by progressive PAC MeidasTouch and titled 'Bye Kayleigh' featured a list of them. In the video, McEnany can be heard making more and more outrageous claims about coronavirus – which has been a threat to Americans for longer than her tenure as White House press secretary, which began on 7 April.
Finally, even Fox News, a network which has been strongly partisan towards Trump during his presidency had to cut away from McEnany on Monday while she was talking at a press conference at the White House. McEnany's opening statement was cut off by host Neil Cavuto after she claimed that the Democrats had willingly engaged in fraudulent activity during the US election, which has projected Joe Biden as the winner.
Fox News cuts out of McEnany
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) November 9, 2020
Cavuto: "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I just think we have to be very clear: she's charging the other side as welcoming fraud and illegal voting, unless she has more details to back that up, I can't in good countenance continue to show you this." pic.twitter.com/0koLBJasl9
With all this in mind are we really surprised that McEnany has broken her promise never to lie?
After all, she would have to stretch the truth very thinly to defend some of the outrageous claims president Trump has made and still keep her job.
More: What Trump acting like a 6-year-old and refusing to concede will mean for Biden's transition
