Getty Image
Kayleigh McEnany was Donald Trump’s fourth and arguably most destructive press secretary, who many believed was somehow able to top the cartoon villainy of Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. (His third, Stephanie Grisham, perhaps wisely kept a low profile, which is to say she almost never did her job, which is speaking to the press.) She was rude, she was condescending, and she was always spinning the truth, attempting to protect her frequently lawless employer. (She also seems to be pretty bitter about her successor.) So when she told a crowd she’d never lied on the job, people online were quick to call bull.
As per Newsweek, the Trump staffer — who, of course, wound up at Fox News — was speaking Sunday at the Young Women’s Leadership Summit, put on by the conservative group Turning Point USA. She recalled one of her most infamous moments: Her first day on the job, back in May 2020, when a journalist, already burned by her three predecessors, asked her a blunt question: “Will you pledge to never lie to us from the podium?”
McEnany’s replied, simply, “I will never lie to you.” The line earned her instant infamy, and she proceeded to spend the next three-quarters of a year telling one whopper after another.
But McEnany didn’t see it that way. She told her own version of the story, in which she was relentlessly on-the-level with journalists trying to relay information from a famously shifty administration. She reminisced about being asked that question, looking back with rose-colored glasses.
“And I said without hesitation, ‘No,’” McEnany said. “And I never did. As a woman of faith, as a mother of baby Blake, as a person who meticulously prepared at some of the world’s hardest institutions, I never lied. I sourced my information. But that will never top the press from calling me a liar.”
She also revealed the administration’s alleged take on their quite scabrous relationship with the press. “Our motto was this: ‘Offense only,’” McEnany told the crowd. “Because I knew what we were up against. Republicans always get the bad headlines, always get the false stories, always get the lies—if I can use that word—told by the press. There is one standard for Democrats and another for Republicans. And we must be on offense.”
When news of McEnany’s appearance made its way onto social media, her spin on her White House tenure was treated with, shall we say, skepticism.
Fact-check: Kayleigh McEnany lied every time she took the podium. https://t.co/QYkGNRGRyp
— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) June 13, 2021
Dear @kayleighmcenany
You’re now even lying about God.
‘I never lied’: Kayleigh McEnany says God made her tell the truth in White House https://t.co/aZoBXt4qfs
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) June 13, 2021
During her time in the White House, Kayleigh McEnany lied, misled, distorted, obfuscated, flip-flopped, lied about flip-flopping, flip-flopped about lying, fabricated, misinformed, misrepresented, unhinged her jaw and spewed lies like a fire hose, and fibbed.
— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) June 13, 2021
Kayleigh McEnany told a crowd today “I never lied”
She’s having rhinoplasty tomorrow.
— Chris Hahn (@ChristopherHahn) June 13, 2021
Kayleigh McEnany pic.twitter.com/KCkZUqrHtq
— NUMBER JUAN (@JUANLAUGHINGATU) June 13, 2021
Kayleigh McEnany stood on stage with a straight face claiming she doesn’t lie and Trump doesn’t wear diapers.
— Hoodlum (@NotHoodlum) June 13, 2021
Raw Story even compiled a helpful list of the many times McEnany fibbed on the job.
Here’s a quick list of @kayleighmcenany’s lies to refresh her memoryhttps://t.co/tbKAHU8tS0
— Raw Story (@RawStory) June 13, 2021
And so it seems the former Trump staffers, much like their old boss, continues to act like they’re still on the job.
(Via Newsweek)
