Why Kayleigh McEnany's Recent Statements About Donald Trump's Presidency Are Causing A Stir

Kayleigh McEnany knows a thing or two about what the Trump White House was like. After all, she was White House Press secretary in the last nine months of Donald Trump's term in office — from April 2020 to January 2021, to be exact (via Business Insider).

And it was during Trump's last nine months in office that the coronavirus pandemic took hold and reached several crescendos, shutting the economy down and causing 22 million to lose their jobs as a result; when Black Lives Matter protests erupted after the death of George Floyd in Minnesota; when Amy Coney Barrett was quickly elevated to the Supreme Court after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg; when the Trump administration not only refused to recognize the results of the November 2020 elections, it also refused to carry out a normal, peaceful transition of power; and when rioters engulfed the U.S. Capitol in what is now widely considered to be a failed power grab, which triggered a historic second impeachment call (via UVA Miller Center).

But history appeared to be of little to no consequence to McEnany who, during her appearance on Fox News, went after President Joe Biden, saying "Look, when President Trump was president, you didn't see crisis after crisis. You just didn't see it. I shudder to think about what Covid would have been like under Joe Biden. We've seen Afghanistan blow up. Crime in the streets. You named it all. What would Covid have been like? Because I was in the White House when it was pretty scary times" (via Mediaite).

Social media was quick to remind McEnany exactly what life was like for most Americans in 2020. "Kayleigh McEnany [says], 'I shudder to think about what Covid would have been like under Joe Biden.' 400,000 Americans died of [Covid]-19 under Trump while he initially downplayed the virus and suggested using light and disinfectant," one Twitter user said incredulously. 

"Kayleigh McEnany: 'When President Trump was President, you didn't see crisis after crisis.' Really? It was relentless unending crisis, a dystopian nightmare. The Walking Dead with red hats, as civilization crumbled season after season," a second Twitter user fumed. But a third social media user said McEnany deserved some credit for her comment because: "She's kinda right in the sense that it was more like one giant, crushing, all-encompassing crisis where it was impossible to tell where one ended and the next one began."

But one social media user said McEnany deserved some credit for her comment because: "She's kinda right in the sense that it was more like one giant, crushing, all-encompassing crisis where it was impossible to tell where one ended and the next one began."

If McEnany had meant to compare Trump's first eight months in office against Joe Biden's, she might have mentioned the U.S.' withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a suspension of the Refugee Admissions Policy for 120 days; the Muslim Travel Ban; the resignation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn after he was caught lying about conversations he'd had with the Russian ambassador; a backtracking on Obama era environmental protections and Washington's decision to remove itself from the Paris climate deal which came months later; the removal of James Comey as FBI director and the appointment of a special counsel to investigate potential Russian interference in the elections; the launching of a chemical weapons attack against Syria; and his refusal to condemn a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville Virginia (via UVA Miller Center).

It will come as no surprise to Trump's critics that, in an op-ed piece for The Washington Post, columnist Erik Wemple dismissed McEnany's comments as "gaslighting."

But there were also those that defended McEnany, with one social media user saying: "Democrats are against the USA. They show it every single day" while another simply tweeted: "Kayleigh McEnany. Correct as usual."

The former White House Press Secretary isn't exactly immune from contradicting herself. Six months after McEnany left office, Business Insider put out a list of five times she had gone back on her claim that she had "never lied" during her time in the White House. Among other things, she claimed that Donald Trump had never downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19, and that Trump had "taken all statutory requirements necessary to either ensure a smooth transition or a continuation of power" after the November 2020 elections (via Twitter). She also claimed that Trump made history with the way his White House marked an AIDS awareness date, saying he "honored World AIDS Day yesterday in a way that no president has before, with the red ribbon there," while Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama did the same in 2007 and 2012.