Kayleigh McEnany's latest briefing is a case study in gaslighting, whataboutism and false claims

[ehrnst]

After slipping in a dig at Biden for not venturing out in public during the coronavirus outbreak in recent weeks, she added: “It is a bit peculiar, though, that in his basement right next to his wife, he’s not wearing a mask, but he’s wearing one outdoors when he’s socially distant. So I think that there was a discrepancy there.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend wearing a mask when at home with family members (unless you are ill or are caring for someone who is). It does, however, recommend wearing masks in public, which Biden was doing at the Memorial Day ceremony.
...................................

The widower of the aide has asked Twitter to take down Trump’s tweets, saying the president “has taken something that does not belong to him — the memory of my dead wife — and perverted it for perceived political gain.”

Rather than defend the tweets, though, McEnany tried to divert attention to something else entirely, playing up an interview Scarborough gave in 2003 in which radio host Don Imus joked about killing an intern with whom the recently retired Scarborough had hypothetically had an affair.

“I would note that the president said this morning that this is not an original Trump thought, and it is not, in fact,” McEnany said. “[In] 2003 on Don Imus, his show, it was Don Imus and Joe Scarborough that joked about killing an intern, joked and laughed about it. So that was, I’m sure, pretty hurtful to Lori’s family.”

McEnany didn’t dwell on the substance of the claims, mind you; she sought instead to suggest that Scarborough’s answers to Imus’s questioning implicated him in something or were just as bad as what Trump is doing today.

Even if you somehow accept that McEnany wasn’t trying to seed doubt about Scarborough’s supposed role in the former aide’s death, though, it’s a striking bit of whataboutism: Yes, the president is trafficking in this baseless theorizing about a murder plot, but look at what Scarborough said about this!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/26/kayleigh-mcenanys-latest-briefing-is-case-study-gaslighting-whataboutism-false-claims/

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. M Enany emphasizes the DUMB in Blonde....

She said she would never lie, and she lies on a daily basis.

I mean no disrespect to Blondes.

[StatGirl]

7. She's not dumb.

She's evil. And she's "catapulting the propaganda" (remember that?) to Trump's supporters who are profoundly stupid.

She's probably also not blonde, but that's a different issue.

[sop]

2. That's why she was hired: "gaslighting, whataboutisms and false claims (aka lies)"

[Shermann]

8. Some Republicans work very hard at that

They'll try to pettifog you with a wall of random names and dates and events to support their argument.

The counterattack is to paraphrase the argument in good faith into a simplified summary, which reveals the lack of weight.

[cilla4progress]

3. Verity of the Imus/Scarborough convo?

Was this after the intern's death?

[chia]

4. Gaslighting, whataboutism and LIES. Why can't they just say the word?

[cilla4progress]

5. OK, I just googled it.

It was not the best, but I take it more as them "laughing at" the allegation, not the death.

[Brainfodder]

6. So in other words, don't waste your time with her at all, and you are better off?

Cherry-picking BS and lies? Wonderful, same old GOP different day.

[SeattleVet]

9. All of her 'briefings' are the same case study.

And a Master Class in the Gish Gallop. She hasn't mastered this technique quite as well as Kellyanne, but she's pretty damned good at it and even more dangerous since she's much more subtle with her fangs.