Memo for McEnany: Once a Fabler Always a Fabler & Yes, Fact Checking Works

 

Her first day on the job: “I will never lie to you”

(Do I look shocked to you)

Never worry about telling the truth

Interesting and typically a Trump-related administration case of “lie-itis” reported on here from Business Insider with this headline:

“Kayleigh McEnany says she didn't lie in the White House briefing room because she went to Oxford, Harvard, and Georgetown and is a Christian mother”

McEnany claims she didn't lie in the White House briefing room.

·  She writes in her upcoming book that she never lied because she went to Harvard, Oxford, and Georgetown.

·  She also writes that she was not deceptive because she's a Christian and a new mother.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany writes in her new memoir that she didn't lie to reporters and the public while serving in the Trump administration because she was trained at elite universities and is a Christian.

McEnany recalls being asked by the White House press corps during her first briefing as Trump's 4^th press secretary in May 2020 to pledge to never lie from the podium. She promised she would not and writes in her book (release date is December 7): “For Such a Time as This” that she is a truthful person by nature and training. 

She writes: “Of course, I would never lie. How do you get through Oxford, Harvard, and Georgetown without sourcing? Without truthful, well-sourced, well-researched information? More importantly, as a woman of faith, a Christian, and a new mother, telling the truth was in my nature and central to my family life and faith walk.”

Throughout her book, McEnany is highly critical of the press, aside from conservative outlets, and repeatedly accuses outlets of having a liberal bias and reporting unfairly about the Trump administration.

She writes that her assurance that: “I wouldn't lie did not stop some in the press from spinning things wildly out of context, twisting my words, assuming the worst, and engaging in ad hominem attacks —like falsely calling me a liar.” 

During her time as press secretary, McEnany falsely claimed, among other things the following (whoppers bold and underlined). 

The facts follow:

1. Trump never downplayed the risk of the novel coronavirus. He admitted to the veteran reporter Bob Woodward on tape that he lied about the severity of the virus so the public wouldn't panic. Multiple reports have since corroborated that.

2. Trump won the 2020 presidential election. He lost to Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes and lost the Electoral College by a margin of 232 to Biden's 306.

3. The Mueller report concluded with “the complete and total exoneration of President Trump.” Mueller’s team declined to make a judgment on whether to charge Trump with a crime because of decades-old DOJ legal guidance memo (i.e., not able to indict a “sitting president”). But they did specify: “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.”

4. One million people attended the “Million MAGA March” after the November 2020 election in support of Trump. As Insider previously reported, multiple news outlets estimated that attendance was more somewhere in the thousands, and Politifact added: “It's mathematically impossible for more than 135,000 people to fit in the location that McEnany tweeted a photo of.”

5. Democrats facilitated widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election: McEnany's claims were so outlandish that Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto cut away as she was speaking in the briefing room on November 9, days after news outlets called the election for Biden saying: “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.”

6. Biden admits voter fraud. In October 2020, McEnany sent out a Tweet saying: “Biden admits to voter fraud.” She attached an edited and out-of-context video of the then-incoming president doing an interview on “Pod Save America” where Biden was answering a question about what he would say to those who had not voted in the 2020 election and didn't plan to, saying (in the full interview that she skipped): “The Republicans are doing everything they can to make it harder for people to vote. We have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.”

My 2 Cents: No wonder most (probably nearly all) Republicans hate fact checkers – the above story proves that again and again.

Now Ms. McEnany like several other former Trump administration staffers has written a book with one purpose: To try and to redeem their pathetic self in their time around serving Trump, covering for him and his lies with their own lies, and of course hoping to rake in a ton of money along the way, too. How ironic is that?

Hopefully more fact checking will prove again that which the vast majority of the public already knows: These books like Trump are full of lies and their weasel approaches, hopefully, will not work. 

Ms. McEnany is in a word: Pathetic without an ounce honor, decency, or shame.

Thanks for stopping by.