After Donald Trump lost re-election by over seven million votes, some people floated theories as to why. Was it his divisive, some would say poisonous rhetoric? Was it because Joe Biden was simply a more attractive candidate? Or was it that he underplayed and mishandled the pandemic so badly that it nearly killed him, too? Of course, there’s no simple reason. And yet there was one devoted staffer who thought COVID was…good for him, actually?
This is yet another bombshell from Betrayal: The Final Act of The Trump Show, the latest tell-all from ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl. The book, which was released mid-October, has already given us a ton of somehow-never-made-public goodies. We now know one of his closest associates was 29-year-old former body man (and “f*cking idiot”), that his own cabinet thought about removing him from office, and that he was cool with former veep Mike Pence potentially being killed.
But now we know that his fourth and final White House press secretary was one of the few who thought the pandemic was a win for the now-former president. In the spring of 2020, during a meeting in which much of his staff was fretting over his re-election numbers, Trump remained upbeat. After all, McEnany had told him he was doing great. He summoned her into the room, and she explained her logic — or lack thereof.
“And Kayleigh comes in, and he (Trump) says, ‘Kayleigh, tell them what you were just telling me,'” Karl said Tuesday on MSNBC. “And Kayleigh McEnany tells the president of the United States, ‘I think you’re going to win, sir, and I think you’re going to win because of COVID.'”
Her reasoning? Republicans’ biggest weakness in the 2018 midterms, which had been a bloodbath for them, was healthcare. But since everyone was distracted by a globe-shaking, once-in-a-century public health crisis, “Democrats wouldn’t be able to talk as much about healthcare.”
If that doesn’t make much sense, then you’re not alone. “You have to get your head around this,” Karl explained, “but she was saying that because of the greatest public health crisis of our time, of the last century, they wouldn’t have to talk as much about healthcare, and therefore he was going to win.”
Trump always surrounded himself with sycophants, but never moreso than in his final stretch, and McEnany was no exception. One argument is that Trump could have won re-election had he taken the pandemic seriously. He could have even been seen as a hero. But that, of course, never happened, and despite what the pillow salesman says, he lost bigly.
In response, MSNBC host Nicole Wallace reminded people that the network decided, early on during the Trump administration, not to air “whatever it is you all called it that happened at the [White House press room] podium.” She then told Karl, “You just gave the best defense for a decision that was at times difficult to defend. Thank you for that.”
You can watch Karl’s appearance in the video below:
(Via Raw Story)
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