Yesterday, the always contentious White House press room got even more so, and a complete misinterpretation lit up the Right blogosphere in faux defense of their heroine, Kayleigh McEnany.

As with much of right-wing news and scandals, it was – actually – “fake.”

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany has a unique ability to be excruciatingly condescending and self-righteous in her interactions with the press, who – you will note – it to ask questions beyond “Describe Trump’s greatness?” Yesterday Kayleigh went at it with Al Jazeera English correspondent Kimberly Halkett on issues of foreign election interference and mail-in voting.

As Kayleigh frequently does, she found an article from Right-Wing Central Headquarters to prove the point Kayleigh was attempting to make – that there were “questions about mass mail-out voting.” Halkett attempted to respond because there are no more questions about mass mail-out voting as there are in computer in-person voting. Moreover, Kayleigh cited an “op-ed,” which she should know makes it an opinion.

Kayleigh then did what she does best, she talked down condescendingly to the reporter, saying: “I know you don’t want to hear them, which is why you talk over me, but I encourage you to read the op-ed,” Kayleigh is always assigning reading material to the press rather than simply answering the questions.

Halkett tried to ask another question, but McEnany moved on, saying that Halkett had had her two questions.

It was at that point that the Right Wing blogosphere went nuts because they believed they heard Halkett say:

“Lying B*tch.”

Did a reporter call @PressSec a “Lying b*tch” on national TV during a White House Press Briefing?

https://t.co/ODfMFpKl2c

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 21, 2020

One doesn’t get to be a White House Correspondent without having the self-discipline to never say such a thing in a professional setting, no matter how reasonable it may seem, given how Kayleigh treats reporters. People who lack that kind of discipline are covering zoning meetings in Akron.

As the accusations went out, Halkett immediately said that was not at all what she had said. Breitbart asked her directly, and the answer comes from an article in The Daily Beast:

“Thanks for asking @charliespiering … there’s a lot of misreporting out there about that briefing,” she wrote in response. “The answer to your question is, I DID NOT.  What I said was, ‘OKAY, YOU DON’T WANT TO ENGAGE.’”

Thanks for asking @charliespiering … there's a lot of misreporting out there about that briefing. The answer to your question is, I DID NOT. What I said was, "OKAY, YOU DON'T WANT TO ENGAGE." https://t.co/xmu5YR7gXr

— Kimberly Halkett (@KimberlyHalkett) July 21, 2020

Closer examination of the audio demonstrates that Halkett’s explanation is true.

Of course, it is true. Despite reputations otherwise, there are two professions in which you are guaranteed serious consequences if you ever lie, journalism and law.

The Daily Beast used a voice analysis to establish that Halkett did say that Kayleigh didn’t want to engage, which also happens to be “true,” Kayleigh never seems to want to engage in the truth. She wants to hand out assignments.

As one last bit of evidence as to just how vindictive the Right-wing media can be, this last tidbit is a perfect exhibit:

Furthermore, the Washington Examiner deleted its initial tweet of the moment that outright claimed “a reporter appeared to call @PressSec a ‘lying bitch’” and replaced it with a more passive one, claiming “some are saying” Halkett made that comment.

And some are claiming that Kayleigh is a …

Last bit, the official White House transcript of the incident has the phrase “not engage,” in it.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom