Kayleigh McEnany was dragged Sunday night and Monday morning for a tweet that said “President @realDonaldTrump already has an ALL FEMALE Senior White House Press Team.”
By way of responding to news that President-elect Joe Biden had named an all-female communications team for his White House, she also claimed that the vice president, first lady and second lady also have all-female senior staff. She wrote that by reporting on Biden’s selection, the Washington Post “once again reveals their blinding propagandist Fake News proclivities.”
The problem with her statements was quickly identified by journalists who, well, work with the men on the various communications teams within the outgoing administration. Other political observers, too, pointed out that her claim didn’t track with publicly-available job titles for men on those teams.
“This is just such a weird and pointless thing to lie about,” wrote George Conway, a prominent Republican who has spoken out repeatedly against the Trump agenda and administration, in which his wife Kellyanne Conway played a prominent role for years.
Conway included screenshots of the Twitter bios for Judd Deere, Brian Morgenstern and Devin O’Malley. Deere and Morgenstern serve as deputy press secretaries while O’Malley is Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary. Their bios say as much. While McEnany’s tweet does specifically refer to “senior” press team officials being female, it is unclear how O’Malley, for instance, would not be considered a senior official.
“Wonder how Judd Deere, who answers most calls to that office, and Morgenstern feel upon learning this,” mused the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman.
A representative for the White House did not immediately return a request for clarification.