As Caleb Hull astutely observed on Twitter, “reporters have to hate their lives when they’re asking their questions and” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany “starts opening her notes.”
On Thursday, McEnany repeatedly turned to that thick binder to school the liberal media. Moments after calling out the tech industry’s censorship of conservatives (and citing MRC TechWatch’s Corinne Weaver), CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta fell flat on his face in trying to trap McEnany. Between coronavirus deaths and liberal media screw-ups, he made a fool of himself.
Starting with the latter topic, Acosta bemoaned the administration taking action against tech bias but applauded Twitter for going after Trump because he deserves to “be fact-checked” and “made so many false and misleading statements that has put, you know, fact-checkers to work across the world”
“[I]f there's any President out there --- a political leader out there that should be fact-checked, isn't it President Trump? And aren't you trying to silence fact-checking by going after Twitter like this,” he added.
By the way, note how Acosta said nothing about fact-checking being applied on social media to false statements from liberals or hostile regimes like China or Iran. Interesting.
As McEnany turned to the relevant pages in her notes, she made clear that she was about to unload:
Well, look, first, I would say I disagree with all, if not almost all of those assertions that you're making there because, look, if you're going to get into the fact-checking business, there’s no one that should be fact-checked more than the mainstream media that has been continually wrong about a number of things.
McEnany then made the jump off the top rope with these examples of liberal media screw-ups on the Trump-Russia probe, many of which you can find here that this author and Rich Noyes chronicled (click “expand”):
MCENANY: To give you a list of some of the most egregious ones, that ABC News in December 2017 falsely reported that Flynn had testified as the President directed him during the campaign to make contact with the Russians, that was false. In 2017, your network CNN botched their WikiLeaks email exclusive and were forced to make on-air corrections. CNN’s Jim Sciutto, another CNN one, dropped a fictional bombshell in 2018 --- July claiming that Michael Cohen would tell federal investigators that the President knew of the Trump Tower meeting and there were many more, not to just put the onus on CNN there.
ACOSTA: But, Kayleigh ---
MCENANY: So, if anyone needs to be fact-checked ---
ACOSTA: --- but Kayleigh ---
MCENANY: --- I think it should be the media.
Acosta discounted all of that, falsely claiming “news outlets that make mistakes from time to time” and that “we own up to” and “correct those mistakes.”
“Not always. I have many that you guys haven’t owned up to I could get to,” McEnany replied.
Yes, Brian Ross eventually was let go by ABC, but he’s now employed by their legal analyst Dan Abrams for his Law&Crime site. And how about the journalists in McEnany’s CNN examples like Carl Bernstein, Marshall Cohen, Manu Raju, and Jim Sciutto? All are still gainfully employed!
Nonetheless, Acosta continued to lie and McEnany continued to do her part in schooling him (click “expand”):
ACOSTA: We do on a regular basis. The President never owns up to any of his false or misleading statements or outright lies. You have pledged in this briefing room to never lie to the American people. Are you saying the President of the United States has never lied to the public before?
MCENANY: I'm around the President. His intend is always to give truthful information for the American people and you mention the media apologizes for their mistruths. I mean, I'm sitting there, looking at other headlines in The New York Times saying there aren’t enough ventilators to cope with the coronavirus. In fact, we had an excess of ventilator we’ve shifted around the world. Washington Post, U.S. health system is showing why it's not ready for a coronavirus pandemic. We were ready. There’s many more I could get to. I could --- on the coronavirus specifically, I could spend the time going through these but that's not what the American people want to hear.
Before that exchange, he twice peddled the Zuckerville narrative about the U.S. crossing on Wednesday 100,000 coronavirus deaths and tied President Trump as somehow responsible for that total.
Acosta inquired about why it took him “so long” to tweet about it and McEnany repeatedly embarrassed him by pointing out Trump had already “recognized that landmark” on May 21 when he ordered flags to half-staff to honor those lost.
“The President has said, you know, you mentioned 100,000 but the President has said when death is too many. He takes this very seriously. He’s said before this is the hardest part of his presidency. It’s something that no one wanted to see happen,” she added.
The last part was important and is likely understood by most Americans, but you can never be too sure with the liberal media that hate the President.
To see the relevant transcript from May 28’s briefing, click “expand.”
White House Press Briefing
May 28, 2020
2:19 p.m. EasternJIM ACOSTA: Yesterday, the U.S. hit 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus, that happened at around 6:00 yesterday evening. It took until about nine in the morning for the President recognize that on Twitter. What took him so long?
KAYLEIGH MCENANY: Look, the President recognized that landmark before we even hit it. The President --- that was --- after all, it was the impetus behind him lowering the flags to half-staff. He did that for several days and that was an acknowledgment of that number approaching and he acknowledged it in a tweet this morning.
ACOSTA: But he --- we hit 100,000 yesterday evening and it took 13 hours --- some odd hours for him to recognize that and tweet about it.
MCENANY: And far in advance of that benchmark, as I noted, he lowered the flags to half-staff. The President has said, you know, you mentioned 100,000 but the President has said when death is too many. He takes this very seriously. He’s said before this is the hardest part of his presidency. It’s something that no one wanted to see happen.
ACOSTA: And on Twitter, shouldn't the President be fact-checked, especially this President who has made so many false and misleading statements that has put, you know, fact-checkers to work across the world? I mean, he’s uttered some 18,000 false or misleading statements, according to The Washington Post, if there's any President out there --- a political leader out there that should be fact-checked, isn't it President trump? And aren't you trying to silence fact-checking by going after Twitter like this?
MCENANY: Well, look, first, I would say I disagree with all, if not almost all of those assertions that you're making there because, look, if you're going to get into the fact-checking business,
ACOSTA: But the President lies.
MCENANY: --- there’s no one that should be fact-checked more than the mainstream media that has been continually wrong about a number of things. To give you a list of some of the most egregious ones, that ABC News in December 2017 falsely reported that Flynn had testified as the President directed him during the campaign to make contact with the Russians, that was false. In 2017, your network CNN botched their WikiLeaks email exclusive and were forced to make on-air corrections. CNN’s Jim Sciutto, another CNN one, dropped a fictional bombshell in 2018 --- July claiming that Michael Cohen would tell federal investigators that the President knew of the Trump Tower meeting and there were many more, not to just put the onus on CNN there.
ACOSTA: But, Kayleigh ---
MCENANY: So, if anyone needs to be fact-checked ---
ACOSTA: --- but Kayleigh ---
MCENANY: --- I think it should be the media.
ACOSTA: There are news outlets that make mistakes from time to time. We own up to those mistakes. We correct those mistakes.
MCENANY: Not always. I have many that you guys haven’t owned up to I could get to.
ACOSTA: We do on a regular basis. The President never owns up to any of his false or misleading statements or outright lies. You have pledged in this briefing room to never lie to the American people. Are you saying the President of the United States has never lied to the public before?
MCENANY: I'm around the President. His intend is always to give truthful information for the American people and you mention the media apologizes for their mistruths. I mean, I'm sitting there, looking at other headlines in The New York Times saying there aren’t enough ventilators to cope with the coronavirus. In fact, we had an excess of ventilator we’ve shifted around the world. Washington Post, U.S. health system is showing why it's not ready for a coronavirus pandemic. We were ready. There’s many more I could get to. I could --- on the coronavirus specifically, I could spend the time going through these but that's not what the American people want to hear.
