White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany made a promise to journalists in her first day on the new job: “I will never lie to you.” Months later, a new ad is underscoring just how dishonest she and Donald Trump have been.
The #ByeKayleigh spot, produced by progressive PAC Meidas Touch, targets the deceit coming from the White House amid a pandemic that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. In a statement, Meidas Touch explains that their video illustrates how McEnany’s lies have had “deadly consequences.”
In late February, while Donald Trump was still holding massive campaign rallies across the country, McEnany claimed COVID would never reach American shores. She furthered her disinformation campaign on the deadly illness by claiming early on that it was not a threat—before completely reversing course and saying more recently that the administration never downplayed the virus.
“Kayleigh’s deceit and treachery will be long remembered once we vote these criminals out of office,” the progressive PAC said in a statement. “She will have a special place in the halls of horrible liars, next to Baghdad Bob.” Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, more commonly known as Baghdad Bob, was Iraq’s Information Minister under Saddam Hussein. He became known for delivering propaganda and “alternative facts.”
After the campaign ad dropped, #ByeKayleigh began trending on Twitter. Several people called the “Minister of Misinformation” out for her incessant lies—including journalist Keith Boykin, who noted that Trump’s lies have been enabled and amplified by people like McEnany.
McEnany is not the first Trump insider to become the subject of an expose-style ad. Meidas Touch is also responsible for the #ByeDonJr ad that sent Twitter into a frenzy in July. “In our effort to bring the truth,” the group says, “and expose the lies, we made videos about those liars in Trump’s orbit.” They hope the ads will help Joe Biden win in November and flip the United States Senate.