Amidst what was sadly a White House press briefing marred by a litany of audio problems (which the White House later cleaned up) Wednesday, the shameless liberal press corps turned in an embarrassing performance while Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany schooled them on their double standard in coronavirus concerns about Saturday’s Trump rally versus Black Lives Matter protests.
CNN chief White House correspondent and carnival barker Jim Acosta showed a need for a fainting couch, admitting in a long back-and-forth that the latter gatherings were noble due to their cause while rallies for the President weren’t justified. McEnany eventually threw it in his face by telling him to “work on your internal cohesion.”
“Kayleigh, in the last day, 96 people in Tulsa have contracted the coronavirus. Wondering about this rally coming up on Saturday, will the President or the White House take responsibility if people get sick and catch the coronavirus at this rally on Saturday,” Acosta began, setting the tone for his latest bender.
McEnany replied that temperature checks would be conducted with hand sanitizers and masks being handed out, and when Acosta complained that such an event would not allow for social distancing, she unloaded on the liberal media’s double standard.
After citing three examples (including the cover of Tuesday’s New York Post), Acosta admitted that he was supportive of BLM protests due to the nobleness of their cause whereas those “supporting the President” were dangerous (click “expand”):
MCENANY: It’s a personal choice of individuals as to what to do, but if we want to talk about internal coherence, I believe that the media needs to work on internal coherence. This wonderful New York Post story. I don’t think Steven Nelson’s here, but good job to the New York Post, highlights the hypocrisy of the media where this is okay, protesting. This is not okay, Trump rallies. I mean, it’s really remarkable and I think the American people have taken notice when, for instance, NBC News tweets at 5:05 p.m. on June 14 “Rally for Black trans lives draws packed crowd to Brooklyn Museum plaza,” seeming to be lauding the protests and then less than an hour and a half later, they say “President Trump plans to rally his supporters next Saturday for the first time since most of the country was shuttered by coronavirus. But health experts are questioning that decision.” CBS had a similar logically inconsistent tweet.
ACOSTA: But these are protesters protesting against injustice, against racism and police brutality. This is a rally, a political rally. There — there are not going to be demonstrations for any kind of cause other than supporting the President and I go back to my original question: Will the White House, will the President take responsibility if there are people who catch the coronavirus and get sick?
MCENANY: Jim —
ACOSTA: As you know, you’ve been to these rallies. Many of these people who go to these rallies —
MCENANY: So have you, by the way.
ACOSTA: — I’ve been to them too —
MCENANY: Yes.
ACOSTA: — are elderly, probably have pre-existing conditions that might put them at risk for serious complications if they catch this virus.
MCENANY: So first, let me know you’ve been to these rallies, these Trump rallies. We do rally in support of something. We rally in support of the President who got us the lowest black unemployment in the history of our country and paychecks going up. We rally that HBCU — funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities is permanent because of President Trump.
ACOSTA: But you didn’t answer my question.
MCENANY: We rally —
ACOSTA: Will the President, will the White House —
MCENANY: — but to suggest —
ACOSTA: — take responsibility —
MCENANY: — no, because you —
ACOSTA: — if people get sick?
MCENANY: Jim, you suggested —
ACOSTA: Will — can you answer that question?
MCENANY: — you suggested that we don’t rally on behalf of anything, so let me note one more thing. We rally on behalf of —
ACOSTA: I said that you rally on behalf of the President. That’s why you’re going.
MCENANY: — we rally on behalf of criminal justice reform and the First Step Act, which President Obama and Vice President Biden talked about, but we did. And I would note this. If we want to talk about the efficacy of what we’re doing, 1,300 health experts signed a letter about the protests saying we do not condemn these gatherings. We support them as vital, so you have health experts on one side saying this and then all of a sudden, a Trump rally is different.
ACOSTA: You’re holding up a newspaper headline. That’s — that’s very nice.
Acosta griped that she never answered his question about culpability but instead held up the Post and, without hesitation, McEnany told Acosta to “work on your internal cohesion and get back to me, Jim.”
As Acosta continued shouting the audio cut out and McEnany tried to move on to the AP’s Zeke Miller. But when it came back, she didn’t engage much longer before putting Acosta out to pasture, leaving the showboater without a crisp, clear meltdown for his fellow hacks at CNN.
Miller was nowhere near as bad as Acosta. Nonetheless, he continued to express deep concern about the rally spreading the coronavirus with nothing to say about the BLM events
Once again, McEnany bulldozed the press’s nonsense:
It’s really inconsistent. The media seems to not be interested in health so much as ideology behind certain events, so for instance, you go in the lockdown protesters were widely condemned by the media who were protesting the lockdown but then all of a sudden, this protest for Black Lives Matter is lauded. It makes no sense. Ideology is driving the line of questioning in many of these cases when it should be, if you’re focused on science, you should be out there asking these same questions about the protesters.
After those two exchanges, the double standard continued to come up. One press corps member continued Acosta’s lead of saying the quiet part out loud in that large gatherings were acceptable amid the pandemic so long as the media approved and they take place outside. McEnany similarly returned fire: (click “expand”):
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can I just get a clarification on your equivalence between protesting in the streets and this rally on the Saturday? Is it the White House position that outdoor events carry the same risk as indoor events?
MCENANY: It’s our position that the media should not be making decisions about their — their guidelines to us about socially distancing based on political ideology or what they think is the worthiness of the cause.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: My point is there are good scientific reasons for treating the two events differently. One is outdoors and the other is indoors.
MCENANY: Ryan, there’s not any good reason for this, so that’s the one thing I would keep going back to.
McEnany expressed her frustration after another question moments later from Wall Street Journal’s Rebecca Ballhaus, guessing it was “probably question number ten on rallies and while we appreciate the great concern for rallygoers, you should just exhibit that same concern, for the protesters who are out there, who are not socially distancing in many cases and not wearing masks.”
