Jason Campbell captures a prime specimen off of Fox News:
Trump campaign Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany: "In 2016, President Trump was the foregone nominee from the beginning. Never did anyone go up against President Trump. We loved our nominee." pic.twitter.com/9Q4aXLV0Lu
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) December 29, 2019
This is so Soviet it makes me mildly ill. Much like the Soviets airbrushed figures of disgraced high Soviet officials out of photographs in an effort to reshape history to their advantage, this McEnany character is trying to turn Trump into the eternal and obvious savior of the Republicans – in the face of one of the largest Republican fields ever back in 2016. In the face of a field which fought tooth and claw to beat Trump. It’s worth noting in the face of this blatantly false propaganda that Trump didn’t win all of the Republican primaries (in Minnesota he came in a paltry 3rd, behind Rubio and Cruz); in fact, he only began to poll more than 50% after the race came down to him, Cruz, and Kasich.
It helps to remember that McEnany is all of 31 years old. She has no experience with seeing this sort of damnable propaganda for what it is; she’d need to be 60+ years old. But her disregard of the facts remains inexcusable. An honorable campaign would fire her immediately and apologize; Trump’s campaign will give her a raise and the Medal of Freedom, because that’s how they operate.
But Fox News viewers do have memories. Will they disregard them in this casting of Trump as their last, great, eternal hope? Or will they growl a bit and take her with a grain of salt?
Hard to say.
