Kayleigh McEnany: Press Secretary Number Four

[JMarie]

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/05/9841777/kellyanne-conway-mail-in-voting-georgetown-cupcakes

Quote

Trump aides and White House reps are practically stepping on each other to defend President Trump after Twitter took the drastic step of adding a fact-checking label to two of his tweets. The tweets in question both claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to widespread voter fraud and would result in a rigged election. After longstanding concerns about the social media platform’s failure to enforce its own policies in regards to the president’s behavior, they created a landing page for users to “get the facts” about mail-in ballots. Trump took to — where else? — Twitter to express his outrage, and now his mouthpieces are doing similar work in the media.

Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to the president, has made several media appearances in defense of her boss. This morning on Fox and Friends, the President's counselor sent hoards of trolls after Twitter’s head of site integrity, who compared Conway to Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels in tweets from 2017. Later in the day, she made the very odd comparison of waiting in line to vote in-person to waiting in line to buy a cupcake.

“People are very proud to show up and go to the polls, they really are,” Conway said. “I mean, they wait in line at Georgetown Cupcake for an hour to get a cupcake. So I think they can probably wait in line to do something as consequential and critical and constitutionally significant as cast their ballot.”

Conway has picked up where Trump left off in a massive movement to dissuade mail-in voting. Despite Trump's concerns, the question of in-person voting became a topic of public health in light of the coronavirus pandemic. After Wisconsin held in-person primaries in April, it was suspected to have led to a spike in the number of cases of COVID-19 in the state. In an effort to avoid unnecessary crowds, states are preparing to allow residents to vote by mail for November’s presidential election. 

Trump has interpreted this as an attack on Republicans. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany has spent the last week defending this point of view, insisting that it causes election fraud (except, of course, when the president does it, which he did). Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Times found that McEnany herself has voted by mail 11 times in the last 10 years.

Election experts have even warned that this attack on mail-in ballots could actually backfire on Republicans come November. As states have increased vote-by-mail options in the past decade, Republicans and Democrats have experienced small, but equivalent increases in voter turnout.

Despite Conway's assertion, Georgetown cupcakes now delivers, which, one could say, is kind of like a ballot being delivered to your mailbox.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Hypocrisy, thy name is Kayleigh:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I know it's The Onion, but I could imagine Kayleigh saying this:

 

[JMarie]

From one blonde to another.  One comment actually said she was filled with Godfidence.  Barf.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ftheactivistmommy%2Fphotos%2Fa.954653337986149%2F2937550633029733%2F%3Ftype%3D3&width=500" 

[Cartmann99]

49 minutes ago, JMarie said:

From one blonde to another.  One comment actually said she was filled with Godfidence.  Barf.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ftheactivistmommy%2Fphotos%2Fa.954653337986149%2F2937550633029733%2F%3Ftype%3D3&width=500" 

Proverbs 6:16-19 is one of the reasons why I roll my eyes at the uber-Christians who love them some Trump.

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by Cartmann99
uber-Christians, not tuber-Christians. Let's leave the innocent potatoes out of this mess.

[Howl]

I gotta wonder if Sarah H Sanders, Ann Coulter and  Kellyanne had some kind of mind meld ritual session with Kayleigh. 

[GreyhoundFan]

She's insane:

 

[Audrey2]

3 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

She's insane:

 

Oh my goodness! She looks just like the Malibu Barbie I had when I was a kid!

[GreyhoundFan]

39 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Oh my goodness! She looks just like the Malibu Barbie I had when I was a kid!

I had Malibu Barbie too! I remember crying in front of the Christmas tree because my mom was playing with her and ripped the sunglasses off, thinking they were removable. Barbie has far more brainpower than Kayleigh.

[GreyhoundFan]

Lock her up...

 

 

[Cartmann99]

On 6/4/2020 at 8:51 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

She's insane:

 

Let's glue a set of false eyelashes on the front of podium, toss a blonde wig on top, and have that for a press secretary instead of her.

[GreyhoundFan]

I hope they do regret it when they lose in November.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I've seen several great reactions to this idiotic statement by Kayleigh:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Bashing Romney, McEnany reveals how worried the White House is about the protests"

Spoiler

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has been in politics long enough to understand that his appearance at a Black Lives Matter protest in Washington on Sunday served as a rebuke of President Trump. Romney has mastered the art of getting under Trump’s skin by passively highlighting Trump’s weaknesses, and the protest certainly achieved that goal.

On Monday morning, Trump tweeted a video snippet of Romney at the march, disparaging the senator and 2012 Republican nominee with a sardonic “what a guy.”

“Hard to believe, with this kind of political talent, his numbers would ‘tank’ so badly in Utah!” Trump wrote — apparently not knowing that Romney is, in fact, quite popular in his state.

Asked about Romney’s appearance in the march at a news briefing Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany offered much nastier criticisms.

“Mitt Romney can say three words outside on Pennsylvania Avenue,” she replied, “but I would note this: that President Trump won 8 percent of the black vote. Mitt Romney won 2 percent of the black vote.”

First of all, this is wrong. Exit polling shows that Romney earned 6 percent of the black vote in 2012, essentially equivalent to the 8 percent Trump earned.

Second, Romney was running against Barack Obama, the first black president in U.S. history. Both Romney and former senator John McCain of Arizona, Obama’s 2008 opponent, did worse with black voters than prior Republican candidates.

Third, Trump’s performance with black voters was actually the worst of any Republican facing a white Democratic opponent in the era of modern exit polling (though he ran essentially equal to George W. Bush in 2000 and Ronald Reagan in 1984).

Fourth, a Post-ABC News poll conducted in October 2012 found that Romney’s favorability with black voters was over 20 percent. In October 2016, Trump’s favorability was under 10 percent.

Beyond those things, though, great point.

What’s remarkable isn’t only that this argument was bad both on the merits and the details. It’s that McEnany offered it at all. That, instead of simply waving off the question and declining to engage in nitpicking with Romney, particularly on such an emotional issue, the White House decided to jump in with both feet. Not only could Trump and his team not abide Romney’s quiet message of opposition, it also had to continue to try to deride him personally and mock his most public failure.

Part of the reason for this is obviously that Trump’s reelection campaign has invested so heavily in making a pitch to black voters. After having benefited in 2016 from a drop in black turnout, Trump’s team clearly hopes to either woo some percentage of black voters in November or to convince them that Trump is good enough and therefore not to back Biden. Having a Republican in the streets of Washington advocating a position of sympathy with black Americans that highlights Trump’s lack of a similar position is simply unacceptable.

To whom was McEnany trying to send a message, anyway? Clearly to Romney, though Trump’s repeated efforts to bash the senator haven’t dissuaded him from his protests against the president. If anything, they may have had the opposite effect. In part, McEnany smacked Romney because Trump wanted her to smack Romney, and because Trump’s base relishes these sorts of disparagements.

It seems unlikely, though, that there are black voters who are going to see Romney’s appearance at the march and reconsider it in light of how he did with black voters in 2012.

So McEnany switched to a different tack, criticizing Romney’s relationship with black Americans more broadly, as though Trump and the senator were in a tough primary fight.

“Mitt Romney has a lot of words,” she said when continuing her response. “Notably, he said that 47 percent of the nation is dependent upon government, believes they are victims, believes that the government has a responsibility to care for them. Those were Mitt Romney’s words not too long ago. The president takes great offense to those words. That’s not America.”

Those words came from a leaked recording during the 2012 campaign. They were widely reported at the time and broadly criticized.

One person who didn’t criticize the comments was Donald Trump. During an appearance on NBC News’s “Today” show at the time, Trump said “we’ve seen enough apologizing already” and that Republicans “have to fight fire with fire, the Republicans have to get tougher or they’re going to lose this campaign.” This was very much in keeping both with Trump’s role in 2012 — self-appointed attack dog for Romney — and Trump’s approach to politics.

Notice, by the way, that Romney didn’t mention black people. It’s McEnany who appears to be suggesting that Romney was referring to black people, a criticism which was raised at the time. McEnany assumes either that people will remember that particular criticism or that they should understand Romney’s comments to be referring to black Americans.

Again, the White House response should be seen as being less about Romney than about the way in which Romney drew attention to Trump’s troubles with black voters. McEnany’s response then transitioned to the standard patter the administration and Trump’s campaign deploy as they seek to appeal to black Americans: She mentioned the creation of “opportunity zones” and funding for historically black colleges. Trump likes to say he’s done more for black Americans than any other president, which has not been found to be true by The Post’s fact-checkers.

“Those kind of actions on the part of the president stand in stark contrast with the very empty words of Senator Romney,” McEnany said in conclusion.

The words Romney used were these: He was marching to “find a way to end violence and brutality and to make sure that people understand that black lives matter.” McEnany did use the phrase “black lives matter” during Monday’s briefing, stating twice that “all black lives matter” as she noted the death of black retired police officer David Dorn during a looting incident.

On Saturday, Romney shared a photo of his father, George, once the governor of Michigan and later an official in President Richard M. Nixon’s administration.

Romney’s presentation of his father’s legacy on race was reinforced by others. Trump’s father’s history on issues of race, for what it’s worth, is less robustly positive.

I'm no fan of Romney, but I do love anything that gets under the tangerine skin. And the WH should be worried.

[GreyhoundFan]

I can't figure out if Kayleigh is just parroting what Stephen Miller told her to say or if she really believes this crap:

 

[fraurosena]

56 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I can't figure out if Kayleigh is just parroting what Stephen Miller told her to say or if she really believes this crap

A bit of both, I suspect.

[GreyhoundFan]

A good read:

 

[Cartmann99]

On 6/8/2020 at 2:49 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

I've seen several great reactions to this idiotic statement by Kayleigh:

 

If this had been said about President Obama, the Republicans would still be screeching about how he thinks he's too good to kneel before God.

[Xan]

Something about this picture just makes me laugh.

(I'm aware that I'm behind the times on style but how is this an appropriate outfit for the presidential press secretary?  Did she look in the mirror before she left the house?)

I think the captions should be:

"Oops."    "I don't know why I'm here."   "Shhhh... Don't talk about my baggy pants."   "I shouldn't have put these in the dryer."

 

[JMarie]

7 hours ago, Xan said:

Something about this picture just makes me laugh.

(I'm aware that I'm behind the times on style but how is this an appropriate outfit for the presidential press secretary?  Did she look in the mirror before she left the house?)

I think the captions should be:

"Oops."    "I don't know why I'm here."   "Shhhh... Don't talk about my baggy pants."   "I shouldn't have put these in the dryer."

 

Sarah Huckabee Sanders would never wear that.  Just sayin'.

[Alisamer]

13 hours ago, Xan said:

Something about this picture just makes me laugh.

(I'm aware that I'm behind the times on style but how is this an appropriate outfit for the presidential press secretary?  Did she look in the mirror before she left the house?)

I think the captions should be:

"Oops."    "I don't know why I'm here."   "Shhhh... Don't talk about my baggy pants."   "I shouldn't have put these in the dryer."

 

Is that a navy jacket with black pants? Really?

I like the jacket, actually, and I think the outfit is fine, IMO. But maybe I'm old-fashioned - It's navy OR black, not WITH black.

What's up with the big piece of plywood behind them?

[GreyhoundFan]

50 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

What's up with the big piece of plywood behind them?

Many buildings in DC boarded up windows and glass doors during the early days of the protests.

[Cartmann99]

After Trump fades away, I think Kayleigh's going to end up with a show on one of the religious networks.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

3 hours ago, Alisamer said:

I like the jacket, actually, and I think the outfit is fine, IMO. But maybe I'm old-fashioned - It's navy OR black, not WITH black.

I wear a navy cardigan with black dress pants sometimes.  I'm sorry

And every time I hear Kayleigh's voice I wish she came with a mute button.

[fraurosena]

23 hours ago, Alisamer said:

It's navy OR black, not WITH black.

Like @HerNameIsBuffy, I don't mind the navy with the black. What bothers me much more is Trump's clothing. Instead of wearing a nice suit, he opted to wear pants and a jacket of different fabrics and shades of blue. I know that may sound BEC, but I believe that outward appearances matter when you are in your role as the face of your country. 

Edited June 18, 2020 by fraurosena