Absurd: a tab in Kaleigh McEnany’s famous “binder” of
talking points that, I must admit, was very satisfying to see. From the
beginning of her ascension to the position of White House Press Secretary, I
have followed all her theatrical performances, paying close attention to her scripted
body language of which her incessant “binder flipping” is a part. Like some
Tantalian folk tale, the binder teases me from behind the podium. I am dying to see how it is laid out and what is
inside. I imagine her lovingly piecing it together on the carpet of her living
room, barefoot, in her fuzzy pajamas with a glass of merlot in her hand. Seeing
even a bit of it was a total rush.
I started obsessively watching these conferences hoping they
would set the world right. I had followed McEnany’s career enough to expect a
phony charade and was certain she would not survive in a room full of seasoned
journalists armed with the truth. Clearly, the briefings would be a validation
of my need to have authenticity annihilate superficiality: food for my soul.
If you have not had the pleasure of viewing one, McEnany’s
press conferences are, quite obviously, formulaic. They are carefully designed
to promote the actions of the president. She shamelessly spins every question and
rarely provides a direct answer. She uses her binder to present “facts” supporting
her whataboutism, and her journalistic plant, Chanel Rion, to hand feed her
questions. She begins and ends with an advertisement sometimes complete with propagandist
videos. Her tactics include scapegoating,
lies of omission, serial positioning, cherry picking, and simply ignoring
questions she cannot answer. She does all of this and more, but even from the perspective
of this inveterate progressive, she wins every time. Though McEnany should be scrambling
out of these briefings defeated and exhausted, she instead glides out like a self-satisfied
movie star.
I have two potential reasons. First, what McEnany says is
the unassailable truth or second, the press corps sucks. Though in my more
Twilight Zone moments I have entertained the former explanation, to preserve my
grip on reality, I usually side with the latter.
The press is playing bit parts in a show in which McEnany is
the star. They arrive with pre-determined questions. Most of the time, the
answers are hijacked, often just serving as a springboard to promote the
President’s agenda. These sacred questions are posed regardless of what McEnany
says, or if the question has already been asked and the answer already given. Rarely
interrupted, her spin hangs there fully preserved and unchallenged. Maybe I am ignorant,
but questions cannot be adjusted to respond to a real time situation? Journalists: where are your binders?
For a recent example, McEnany opened her 7/16 briefing with
the following statement: “The president reversed the disastrous overregulation
of the Obama-Biden administration…The cost of these burdensome regulations falls
disproportionately and benefits disproportionately lower income Americans.”
Even my own half informed brain could identify issues: omitting the benefits of regulation and the
costs of not regulating, associating a long history with Obama exclusively,
leaving out the fact that many regulations protect the public from the
indiscriminate actions of the moneyed elite, the insinuation that Donald Trump is
the champion of the poor… Surely somebody would oppose it. Surely somebody
could flip to her tab labeled “regulation” or “the poor” and beat this one
down. I understand we are in the middle of a pandemic, but we already know Trump’s
position on masks.
At the very least, I wanted one person to fact check this
opening statement in real time, and at best, I wanted them all to toss their
prepackaged questions out the window and corner the assertion like a pack of
hungry wolves. Instead, it was allowed to stand, and, later, the main takeaway
from this briefing? According to the press,
McEnany claimed that, “The science will not get in the way of us opening
schools”, which she did, but then clarified it afterwards with comments that clearly
exonerated her from the statement’s worst possible interpretation.
My conclusion? I am beginning to believe that the press is,
as the Trump administration claims, after the president and not, as I rely on
them for, after the truth.
Absurd, indeed.
