File under unbelievable if it wasn't Trump surrogate and CNN analyst Kayleigh McEnany. Last night she made up a despicable scenario and alleged President Obama didn't care at all about the tragic fate of beheaded terror victim Daniel Pearl.
McEnany claimed that a heartless Obama went golfing after Daniel Pearl was beheaded.
The problem is that Daniel Pearl was murdered in 2002 and Obama was a State Senator.
She either is lying or confused. It's so hard to tell with Kayleigh, because her sole purpose is not to inform, but to filibuster a segment with bluster so nothing against Donald Trump sticks in a viewer's memory.
She was defending Trump's ridiculously frequent golfing and said, "Every party uses vacationing and golfing as a hit against the other party. it's kind of a cheap shot."
In recent memory, President Bush took a lot of vacation time during two wars. But it was this particular moment, the morning of a suicide bombing in Israel, that forever linked George W. Bush's stupid tone-deafness and his golf game. He made a strong statement against the terror attack, and then famously said "Now watch this drive."
Forever blind to their own hypocrisy, conservatives attacked President Obama every time he tried to take a break, even though he took less vacation time than any president in the last 40 years. Kayleigh McEnany was a frequent taker of the "cheap shot" against Obama.
Trump, however is on a different planet. In 24 days, he spent 24 million dollars on vacation days at his own golf resorts, while Obama spent 94 million on 8 years being in the White House.
And that is the huge difference between Trump and every other president, including Dubya. Trump owns the golf courses and resorts where he is spending nearly every weekend. That means the reporters and secret service who must accompany him are paying him to do their jobs. It's the biggest grift in the history of the presidency. Oh, and he's taking a salary as well, so #MAGA folks might want to get off that high horse.
McEnany did admit finally that Trump was being "a little" hypocritical in his attacks. but then revved up her prepared attacks against Obama by comparing an incident that she got totally wrong.
As she was about to drop what she thought was a provocative hammer, Don Lemon interrupted her and called her out for attacking Obama via Twitter about his golfing too.
And then she explained, "I'll tell you why. When president Bush took time off from the golf course in honor of the Iraq war - you had president Obama, who after I believe the beheading of Daniel Pearl, spoke to how upset he was about that and rushed off to a golf game."
Huh?
I mean she worked on that attack line before she came on the air I expect for a while. What the hell was she talking about? The look of confusion on Peter Beinart's face tells you all you need to know.
I had to do some research to find out what the heck was was talking about.
In 2014, Obama was on vacation in Martha's Vineyard when journalist James Foley was beheaded. He expressed remorse to the media, "saying the group responsible, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), follows a "bankrupt ideology" and has "no place in the 21st century."
Later he went to play a round of golf and was criticized for it. He was interviewed by Chuck Todd and said he “should have anticipated the optics” of hitting the links. “Part of this job is also the theater of it,” he said in the exclusive interview for NBC’s Meet the Press. “Well, it's not something that always comes naturally to me. But it matters. And I'm mindful of that.”
CNN has got to put a stop to Trump surrogates mangling history, misreporting it or willfully rewriting it. Kayleigh knew she was being a complete hypocrite, she planned on it, and she got her facts wrong. She should be suspended from CNN indefinitely for her lack of professionalism.
