President Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, has defended Trump for years. However these days, she may be particularly helpful as she knows a thing or two about using the race card to his benefit.
Last week, Trump appointed McEnany as his new press secretary and the timing couldn’t be better. She appears to play right into what may shape up to be a campaign that uses divisive and offensive ethnic fear while promoting nationalism.
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Since the novel coronavirus pandemic, some say Trump has already begun playing to white fear in his new presidential campaign strategy – with his repeat verbiage of the “Chinese virus,” and how he uses his daily Coronavirus Task Force briefings to discuss drug cartels, migrant caravans and the need to continue to secure our borders, according to Slate.
Earlier this month, a reporter asked him if he worries about an uptick in domestic violence cases because of the social distancing required to combat the novel coronavirus, and Trump misheard the question and asked if it was about Mexican violence?
This will fit well into McEnany’s playbook. Several years ago, she stoked rumors about President Barack Obama’s place of birth, made up a story that Obama golfed during a terrorist murder, and when video footage was released showing Trump uttering the words “Grab ’em by the p*ssy,” McEnany said his preface “they let you do it” implied that he had consent.
Twitter users were quick to remind people that just last month she took a senseless jab at the about the former president, which encapsulates her blind support of the president.
FLASHBACK: Newly named WH @PressSec @kayleighmcenany, back on Feb. 25: “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here, we will not see terrorism come here, & isn’t that refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama?” pic.twitter.com/s0Fh5iZyYD
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) April 7, 2020
McEnany also went so far as to back Trump when he denounced U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the presiding judge over a fraud case against Trump University, as “Mexican.” Trump said Curiel had a bias against him because “We’re building a wall. He’s a Mexican.” McEnany said of the remark that overt racism could not be actually racist. Instead, she said it was just “poorly worded.”
READ MORE: Trump retweets post calling for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be fired
“First of all, being Mexican is an ethnicity. It’s not a race,” McEnany said, according to CNN. “So, by virtue of that, it’s not textbook racism.”
She added to CNN “everyone’s fine with it when a liberal says it on this panel. But when Donald Trump says it, all of a sudden people have a problem with it.”
Gear up for a racially explosive campaign season.