Trump’s press secretary Kayleigh McEnany praises coronavirus response

Trump’s press secretary has praised the US President’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, despite the death toll reaching 100,000.

Natalie Brown

@natalieisbrown

3 min read

May 28, 2020 - 3:25PM

America may have the highest coronavirus death toll in the world, but the actions of President Donald Trump in the face of the pandemic were praised by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany in her latest briefing.

The choices Mr Trump – who she has deemed “one of the best presidents, if not the best President, this country will ever have” – has made have been “guided by data”, Ms McEnany said, and saved millions of Americans who otherwise would’ve died from the outbreak.

“This President made the right choice,” she told reporters on Tuesday, referring to Mr Trump’s call to “shut down the economy”.

Without closing down the economy – a decision “that was hard for the President” – Ms McEnany said estimates had “anywhere between 1.5 and 2.2 million people in the US succumbing to the virus”.

“The President made the very hard choice of shutting down the economy so we avoided that extraordinary number,” she said.

“It was a delicate balance and he did exactly as he should, guided by data, and we are far below 2.2 million dead Americans because of the actions of President Trump.”

For all of the political hacks out there, if I hadnâ€™t done my job well, & early, we would have lost 1 1/2 to 2 Million People, as opposed to the 100,000 plus that looks like will be the number. Thatâ€™s 15 to 20 times more than we will lose. I shut down entry from China very early!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020

The briefing, in which she was also probed about tweets the President had about a conspiracy theory surrounding the death of aide Lori Klausutis, claims about “Obamagate” and the Russian investigation, was described by the Washington Post as a “case study in gaslighting, whataboutism and fake claims”.

“We’ve seen that, unsurprisingly, Kayleigh McEnany is treating the job of White House press secretary as being the chief spokesperson for the Trump re-election campaign,” political commentator and columnist Kurt Bardella said.

Mr Trump’s fourth press secretary since his term began three and a half years ago, the 32-year-old Harvard Law School graduate has been labelled as both the biggest asset in the White House’s arsenal and a Trump apologist with “rock solid” loyalty.

“She defends the President and promotes the President like nobody else. She’s also fearless,” Trump re-election campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told The New York Times.

Ms McEnany is one of the last few ‘somewhat sane’ people to defend Donald Trump, one political commentator said. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

A political commentator acquainted with Ms McEnany, who three weeks into her role promised journalists she would “never” lie to them, told The Guardian the Trump administration had brought her on board “when it became pretty clear that there were few people who were willing to defend Donald Trump that were somewhat sane”.

Throughout her career, making her name as CNN’s pro-Trump panellist, Ms McEnany has defended some of the President’s most questionable actions.

She insisted the infamous “grab them by the p**sy” tape “implied consent” because Mr Trump used the word “let”; argued that his defence of the Charlottesville white supremacist protesters was a message of “love and inclusiveness”; and falsely claimed former president Barack Obama withdrew troops from Iraq leading to the rise of Islamic State.

It was in fact president George W. Bush who made the decision to withdrew from Iraq which was implemented under the Obama administration.

All this coming from a woman who also believes the Confederate flag “show southern pride” and has argued that police violence against black men has nothing to do with America’s history of slavery or racism.

Ms McEnany has deemed Mr Trump ‘one of the best presidents, if not the best president, this country will ever have’. Picture: Evan Vucci/AP

Ms McEnany’s most recent comments came as the US approached – and then passed – 100,000 deaths as a result of COVID-19, a feat which she said “is something to be mourned”.

“Every loss of life counts,” she told reporters, when asked if there was a “magic number” that voters in November could judge Mr Trump’s success in combating the virus.

“We say 100,000, but like the President says, one death is something to be mourned. These 100,000 individuals have a face. The President takes this very seriously, it’s why he lowered the flag to half-staff for three days – to remember these men and women.”