There's a New Sheriff in Town: Kayleigh McEnany's Top 4 Media Takedowns
President Donald Trump’s new press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, has already been making a name for herself after a series of impressive establishment media takedowns.
The 31-year-old has supported Trump since his 2016 campaign and served as the Trump 2020 presidential campaign’s national press secretary before being tapped for the White House press secretary position.
Her biting rebuttals to some of the media’s most ridiculous, biased questions are an absolute must-watch. Here are Kayleigh McEnany’s top four media takedowns.
1. “I’ll leave you with those questions, and maybe you’ll have some answers in a few days.”
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Reuters reporter Jeff Mason asked McEnany a smarmy question during a May 6 press briefing in hopes of catching the new press secretary off guard. It didn’t work.
“In a previous life, before you were press secretary, you worked for the campaign,” Mason said. “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?”
McEnany started by clarifying that the statement she made on Fox Business was regarding the intent behind the China travel restrictions.
Then she decided to fight back with some questions of her own, saying “I guess I would turn the question back on the media and ask similar questions.”
“Does Vox want to take back that they proclaimed 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?” McEnany said. “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 the fear of the virus may be spreading faster than the virus itself?” she continued. “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 coronavirus?”
After flipping the question back on several left-leaning media outlets, she had one final statement before making her exit.
“I’ll leave you with those questions, and maybe you’ll have some answers in a few days,” she concluded with a smile.
2. “What attracted the father of the Orlando terrorist to your candidate?”
During a 2016 CNN panel, Kayleigh McEnany got into a bit of a sparring match with Christine Quinn, a very outspoken pro-choice, pro-LGBT, feminist advocate of the left.
McEnany’s opening question was what got the ball rolling.
“It’s important to point out though that my colleagues on the left, their candidate had Omar Mateen’s father sitting behind him who is pro-Taliban, who gave cover to al-Qaeda and who is anti-gay, who said that gays deserve to be punished. This is who Hilary Clinton had three rows behind her,” McEnany said.
Quinn was noticeably agitated as she attempted to respond. Then McEnany had one simple request.
“May I ask you a question?” McEnany said.
“No, you can’t ask me a question,” Quinn replied.
“Because you can’t answer the question,” McEnany said.
This set Quinn off, prompting her to say “Oh, you can’t ask me a question, honey, I can’t answer so don’t even try.”
Apparently Quinn was wrong, because she had a hard time with McEnany’s question.
“What attracted the father of the Orlando terrorist to your candidate?” McEnany asked.
Too furious to think out a rational reply, Quinn angrily screeched back, “He’s a mentally ill individual!” giving McEnany the perfect opportunity to deal a final blow.
“Oh that’s what attracted him, I get it,” McEnany said, “What attracted him to your candidate? And your answer was he’s mentally ill.”
3. “These are very serious questions. They’ve been ignored by the media for far too long.”
.@PressSec slams #Obamagate and lies under oath by Obama Admin Officials. pic.twitter.com/nbpKQGuFcf
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) May 15, 2020
During another press briefing, Kayleigh McEnany was asked about the “Obamagate” situation and if there was a specific crime committed.
“[T]he President suggested that people should be jailed for what he said, earlier in the week, was a very obvious crime,” the reporter began. “You’re an attorney and the President’s spokesperson. Perhaps you could lay out the elements of this crime. What crime was committed and in what way?”
Yet again, McEnany was fully prepared for the question. At first she hinted at the media’s unwillingness to investigate Obama’s very possible wrongdoing.
“Yeah, I’m really glad you asked because there hasn’t been a lot of journalistic curiosity on this front. And I’m very glad that you asked this question,” McEnany said.
“We know that there was a lot of wrongdoing in the case of Michael Flynn. The FBI notes, for instance, that said, ‘Should we,’ quote, ‘get him to lie,’ as they pontificated their strategy. We know that the identity of this three-decade general was leaked to the press — a criminal leak to the press of his identity in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights,” McEnany stated.
“These are very serious questions. They’ve been ignored by the media for far too long. And I’m very glad that I think that is the second question that I have fielded on Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, because justice does matter. Those questions, they matter.”
4. “I hope in your reporting you are now able to debunk this claim.”
FACT CHECK: President @realDonaldTrump DID NOT dismantle the pandemic response office.
The NSC’s Counter-proliferation and Biodefense Directorate exists today!
WATCH ⬇️ https://t.co/0ZJ6mxRpWr pic.twitter.com/xg6bbK8vSt
— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) May 15, 2020
One media narrative that proliferated during the COVID-19 pandemic was that President Trump disbanded the government’s pandemic response team, which resided under the National Security Council.
Kayleigh McEnany attacked the accusation head-on and fully debunked it once and for all.
She explained that while changes were made in 2018, the actions that the Trump administration took removed a good amount of government bloat within the response team and made it much more efficient.
“In short the NSC retained the same number of experts focused on biological threats that the Obama administration had, but honed them in and focused them more and housed them in a more coherent structure and with a more senior leader,” the press secretary explained.
“I’d also note that this directorate, which exists today, is the same office that critics allege, to this day, that President Trump eliminated.”
And, as per usual, the new press secretary had one final jab to take at reporters, like PBS’s Yamiche Alcindor, who attempted to spread this false rumor.
“I hope in your reporting you are now able to debunk this claim.”
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