“Soviet-style propagandizing”
President Donald Trump’s brand new White House press secretary has gotten off on the same wrong foot as every one of his other press secretaries have, by lying. And now she’s paying the price, with her reputation, just as Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Stephanie Grisham did.
Kayleigh McEnany, who Trump imported from his re-election campaign, struck out on Twitter Thursday with what many are declaring are complete and total lies about the President’s horrific coronavirus testing record.
(Speaking of records, McEnany’s is that of a racist, a birther, and a hypocrite.)
President Donald Trump likes to claim the U.S. has tested “more people” than any country in the world, but given the U.S. has the third-largest population, that’s not saying much. What matters is per-capita testing – how many tests per million people. And the U.S., thanks to Trump, is doing extremely poorly – and trending worse. Which means more people are dying than would have if Trump had gotten testing right.
For the record, the United States ranks first in the world for total number of coronavirus cases (653,751), and for total number of COVID-19 deaths (33,434). (Note: numbers are constantly being updated.)
The United States, which up until the coronavirus pandemic had been rated one of the most-prepared nations to handle a pandemic, currently ranks a dismal 43rd in the world for coronavirus testing, on a per-capita basis. (On Wednesday it was 49th.)
McEnany’s framing fits right in with the way every Trump administration official speaks about this President, as she shows in this series of tweets.
Many are outraged over her falsehoods and truth-twisting.
Global health activist, epidemiologist, and Assistant Professor at Yale School of Public Health Gregg Gonsalves makes quite clear McEnany’s claims are false.
The Nation’s sports editor Dave Zirin, a highly-respected journalist, apparently agreed – but had a few more points to make:
Cornell Law law professor Josh Chafetz:
The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent:
Former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, former TIME managing editor, author Richard Stengel:
Contributor to The Nation Joshua Holland:
Writer at The New Yorker John Cassidy:
Newsweek White House Correspondent Andrew Feinberg:
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license