White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany criticized CNN White House chief correspondent Jim Acosta on Saturday during an appearance on “Watters’ World” after taking his comments out of context on Thursday, saying that what he did was “false and wrong”.
“It is an admission that they cannot debate the merits, Jesse. And look, this is the equivalent: if I told you right now that there is no universe in which Jim Acosta gets involved in fake news and you put up with his chyron “JIM ACOSTA COMMITS HIMSELF TO FAKE NEWS,” would be the exact opposite of what I said and selective editing, “McEnany told host Jesse Watters. “But that’s exactly what Jim Acosta did. He was false and he was wrong, so he corrected his tweet.”
WHO IS KAYLEIGH MCENANY? WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRESS SECRETARY OF THE INCOMING WHITE HOUSE
During Thursday’s White House briefing, McEnany reiterated President Trump’s firm stance of wanting children to return to school in the fall amid intense debate over how educators can prevent the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Science shouldn’t get in the way of this, but as Dr. Scott Atlas said, I thought this was a good quote: ‘Of course, we can do it. Everyone else in the Western world, our peer nations are doing it. We are the outliers here, ” McEnany said at the time, citing the former chief neurologist at Stanford Medical Center.
“The science is very clear on this. For example, you look at the JAMA pediatric study of 46 pediatric hospitals in North America that says the risk of critical illness from COVID is much lower for children than seasonal flu. The science is in our side here. We encourage localities and states to just follow science. Open our schools, “he added.
Acosta then tweeted about what McEnany said when he suggested it was anti-science.
“The White House press secretary on Trump’s push to reopen schools: ‘Science must not stand in the way of this,'” Acosta initially tweeted.
Watters asked McEnany if he ever confronted Acosta, prompting the press secretary to say “he’s actually quite nice off camera.”
Watters went on to ask McEnany about the criticism he received from ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl, who heads the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), and his opinion piece in which he accused McEnany of giving partisan monologues and ” deny reality “during the press sessions.
“I use my briefings to highlight issues that Americans care about and don’t ask me. When have I been asked if police officers die on our streets, children die on the streets of Democratic cities? These are Democratic cities. . – two individuals who died in CHOP, the Democratic Autonomous Zone, “said MecEnany. “When have they asked about this? They don’t ask about it, and that’s why I look at journalists, directly at the camera, and talk to the American people because these problems and these lives matter.”
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“And Jon Karl, if you want to determine how you want to conduct the briefing, no one will stop you from trying to become a Press Secretary in a future administration,” added McEnanay.
Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Sam Dorman of Fox News contributed to this report.
