A White House press secretary has just one job, and that is to take the president’s message to the news media in order to get it out to the American people. On Monday, Kayleigh McEnany, Donald Trump’s third press secretary, found that job to include a defense of a U.S. president’s views on NASCAR.
On Monday morning, Trump tweeted vitriol at NASCAR’s only black driver, Bubba Wallace. Earlier this year, a rope fashioned into a noose was found in the slot where Wallace’s car is garaged, which his team asked to have investigated as a possible hate crime. The FBI’s investigation found that the rope had been in the slot prior to it being assigned to Wallace, and the investigation was settled. Apparently, Trump thinks that isn’t good enough, and lashed out on Twitter.
McEnany had to defend those comments in an interview on Fox News, a place where the questions and answers should have been quite easy. However, host Sandra Smith pressed McEnany on the false statement that Trump made in his tweet when he referred to the controversy as “a hoax” for which Wallace should “apologize.” The press secretary started by saying that:
‘The FBI investigation determined that there was no hate crime versus Bubba committed. What the president is making is a broader point that this rush to judgment on the facts, before the facts are out is not acceptable.’
Smith pushed back, reminding McEnany that the noose was never determined to be “a hoax,” just that it wasn’t intended as a hate crime toward Wallace. McEnany kept up the false narrative, another unexpected piece of a White House press secretary’s job under Trump.
‘The Federal Bureau of Investigation does not stand by that assessment. The president is merely pointing out that we’ve got to let facts come out before we rush to judgements. And there was no hate crime committed against Bubba Wallace.’
Defending racist statues, another focus in recent days by President Trump, McEnany then completely missed the point of the recent protests by declaring how great America has been and how it’s made everyone free. Of course, McEnany is ignoring the long history of slavery, segregation, and racial injustice, because none of those things affect her.
‘America is the greatest country on Earth. This nation, and the bedrock of freedom, put in place by the Constitution and our Declaration of Independence has done more for the world and the advancement of human history than any country on planet Earth. This is a good country, a country to be proud of and the president will never apologize for what makes America great.’
-Over 132,000 Americans have died from #COVID19, and the virus is surging.
–@CIA has assessed that Russia paid bounties to Taliban to kill US troops.
-Minorities are increasingly the targets of hate crimes.
What is @realDonaldTrump focused on? Attacking Bubba Wallace. https://t.co/HLlf8G6qXJ
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 6, 2020
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
