McEnany Says She’s “Not Engaging In Conspiracy Theories” Seconds After Promoting One

September 4, 2020

By Emily Singer

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday told a reporter that questions over the ever-changing story surrounding Donald Trump’s unannounced visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in November 2019 amount to a conspiracy theory.

Trump’s visit to Walter Reed has once again made news after a book from New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt reported that Mike Pence was put on standby while Trump went to the hospital. Trump then fanned the flames, denying that he had been hospitalized for “mini strokes” — which no one had accused him of.

NBC News’ Peter Alexander asked McEnany about Trump’s visit to the hospital: “The president said he went there to begin his physical. This week, he said he was there to complete his physical. Which one was it?”

That’s when McEnany accused “the media” of “engaging in conspiracy theories about the president’s health.”

“I am not engaging in conspiracy theories,” McEnany said.

McEnany’s comment came roughly 60 seconds after she herself engaged in conspiracy theories.

She said the Department of Justice will be “pursuing domestic terrorism charges against antifa” — something experts have said is impossible because antifa is not an organized group with a single ideology, making it unenforceable as a terrorist organization, according to the Washington Post.

In addition, Trump had recently endorsed a GOP candidate who traffics in dangerous conspiracy theories and has pushed debunked conspiracy theories several times over the course of this term in office.

Back in August, after Trump endorsed Marjorie Taylor Greene — a Republican House candidate who believes in the bizarre and dangerous QAnon conspiracy theory — McEnany defended Trump by claiming that he “hasn’t done a deep dive into the statements.”

McEnany also defended Trump back in June, when he lobbed a false accusation that a 75-year-old man brutalized by police was a member of antifa and faked his injuries.

“The president was raising questions based on a report that he saw. They are questions that need to be asked,” McEnany said of Trump’s attack on the man.

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