'Lazy lies’: Kayleigh McEnany trashed by White House correspondent

In a column for the conservative Bulwark, White House correspondent Brian Karem expressed disgust with Donald Trump's press secretary Kayleigh McEnany for wasting reporter's time with either non-answers or blatant lying on Thursday, and cited three instances of what he called "lazy lies."

On Thursday, McEnany kicked off her talk with reporters by running a clip of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) getting her hair done before taking questions from the assembled reporters.

According to Karem, what followed was "... convenient examples of why Donald Trump is not fit to serve as president of the United States," with the "White House press briefing offer[ing] up three on a platter."

First on his list was the press secretary trying to spin the president's threat to withhold funds from cities experiencing unrest, with McEnany calling the threat a presidential attempt to "incentivize" mayors, and Karem countering, "That is, if they are under the threat of losing federal funds then they’ll do what Trump wants. This fits the dictionary definition of extortion—and shows that the president obviously hasn’t learned his lesson from the 'quid pro quo' behavior with Ukraine that got him impeached."

Next on the list was the White House spokesperson's attempt to not address Trump's mysterious visit to Walter Reed Hospital last year, ostensibly for a "physical," with the president making subsequent tweets that have cast even more doubt about what actually happened that day.

"Questions surfaced again this week following reports that Trump may have lied about the reason for his visit to Walter Reed. That followed several public appearances where Trump appeared in questionable health. In response to those reports, Trump sent out a tweet denying he had had 'mini-strokes,'" Karem wrote. "He also changed his story and claimed—contrary to everything he and his staff had repeatedly been saying since last November—that the 2019 visit to Walter Reed was the end of his physical, not the beginning."

According to Karem, "Peter Alexander tried to get an answer from McEnany, but she blundered through one excuse after another before finally saying that she wasn’t going to indulge media 'conspiracy theories.' All Alexander wanted was clarification. All he got was obfuscation."

Lastly, he notes, McEnany lied in defense of Trump's proposal that GOP voters in North Carolina should vote twice to expose voter fraud.

"McEnany tried to parry, and then tried to deny and finally she got Karl off the topic and tried to tell everyone that Trump is for the rule of law, but if someone voted by mail and they showed up to vote and a poll worker couldn’t guarantee they had voted, then the voter should vote again. But the bottom line is that is illegal to knowingly vote twice in an election and in many places it’s also illegal to encourage such behavior," Karem wrote, before adding that when he tried to press Trump's spokesperson on her assertion, she turned on her heel and walked away.

"McEnany walked away. She wouldn’t even address it. It is a legitimate question. It deserves an answer. Donald Trump is not fit for office and his press secretary isn’t fit to serve. They are encouraging lawlessness, not the rule of law," he wrote before getting in one final dig at McEnany.

"At her first press briefing Trump’s press secretary said she’d never lie to the American people. That was her first lie. There have been a steady stream of them ever since," he concluded.