In her short tenure as White House Press Secretary, Democrat Jen Psaki has received heaps of praise for the way she tackles the job. Unlike the previous administration, Psaki has been delivering consistent press briefings and hasn't required constant fact checking.
But her predecessor, one of many Trump administration Press Secretaries, Kayleigh McEnany, has had enough.
During her Fox News show Outnumbered, McEnany went on a transparently jealous rant about the supposed media "fawning" Jen Psaki received in contrast to the regular criticism McEnany herself received.
McEnany failed to mention the majority of her criticism centered around her lack of press briefings and the number of lies she told on the rare occasions she did offer information.
With the announcement that Annie Leibovitz is doing a photo shoot with Jen Psaki, Fox brings on a jealous Kayleigh McEnany to whine about not getting any profile pieces herself, and how the press was mean to her compared with Jen.pic.twitter.com/QjMUnd8qeG— Ron Filipkowski (@Ron Filipkowski) 1622848544
McEnany's tantrum followed media reports famed portrait photographer Annie Liebovitz was dispatched to the White House to photograph Psaki for an upcoming profile in Vogue.
McEnany ranted:
"It's just so sad that you have a fawning press corps like this, a fawning media sycophantically covering members of the Biden administration."
It's a strange grievance to have, given the years of media "fawning" over McEnany's former boss, Republican President Donald Trump, on the very network on which McEnany appears.
Fox News, of course, was hardly alone in this.
Trump received enthusiastically positive coverage from right-wing media outlets throughout the five years he was a fixture on the political scene. Those same outlets have been almost unanimously, and angrily, critical of Democratic President Joe Biden since the moment his victory was announced.
For their part, McEnany's guests did not seem to share her outrage. Republican Morgan Ortagus, former State Department spokesperson for the Trump Administration, refused to go along with McEnany's rant, instead complimenting Psaki.
"I have a little bit of a different perspective. This will surprise many Fox News viewers—Jen Psaki is actually a good friend of mine... I think she's a great person, she's a great mom, so I don't see her success as a threat to my success… or Kayleigh's..."
Ortagus went on to say the reason Vogue never did any profiles of McEnany is most likely because the general readership of Vogue does not agree with Republicans' views, to which McEnany responded by claiming she didn't care about being profiled in Vogue—another odd choice given Psaki's Vogue profile was the entire impetus for McEnany's criticism.
On Twitter, McEnany's tantrum inspired a giant collective eyeroll.
Awww! Well I\u2019m sorry Kayleigh. It\u2019s natural for people to respect someone who doesn\u2019t lie to them everyday.— \u2736\u2729\ud835\udc3e\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc66 \ud835\udc4e\ud835\udc58\ud835\udc4e \ud835\udc3e\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc4e\ud835\udc35\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc4e \u2736\u2729 (@\u2736\u2729\ud835\udc3e\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc66 \ud835\udc4e\ud835\udc58\ud835\udc4e \ud835\udc3e\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc4e\ud835\udc35\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc4e \u2736\u2729) 1622862900
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha\nhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha\nhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha\nhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha\nhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha\nhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha\nhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha\nhahahahahaha Poor Kayleigh, nobody likes her.— Janie Perkins (@Janie Perkins) 1622849471
Because red-heads have more fun and life is better when you speak truth.pic.twitter.com/UZfQpzOBcP— Me Jane (@Me Jane) 1622851149
The thing KayLIE is famous for, besides lying, is holding up papers and binders.pic.twitter.com/5tALNXmjDS— D Villella \u2744\ufe0f (@D Villella \u2744\ufe0f) 1622853250
So calling the press the enemy of the people and lying to them doesn\u2019t get an Annie liebowitz photo shoot and glowing press pieces. Color me surprised.— Wayne Lance (@Wayne Lance) 1622849371
Kayleigh: Why was everyone so mean to me?\n\nAlso Kayleigh:pic.twitter.com/KpDixl4tS3— Frederick Eden (@Frederick Eden) 1622851604
And the point they'll miss is: Annie Leibovitz saw something in Jen Psaki which compelled her to profile her. Kayleigh McEnany is vacuous and banal. Who wants to photograph that?— Natro (@Natro) 1622851045
Psaki doesn't use binders full of blank pages as props, for starters...— chulesee (@chulesee) 1622852611
shh.. there, there. it's not going to be ok.pic.twitter.com/ZBFhQRMeua— Hanksy (@Hanksy) 1622848837
Boo freaking hoo, Gaslight Barbiepic.twitter.com/B91HQDpFSU— Patricia, NOT "Disgraced Ex-President Donald T.\u201d (@Patricia, NOT "Disgraced Ex-President Donald T.\u201d) 1622851003
Kayleigh spent her time lying I do miss her end of press conference hissy fits though— 12qu \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\u262e\ufe0f (@12qu \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\u262e\ufe0f) 1622848909
During her tenure, McEnany was repeatedly caught lying by independent fact checkers on both social media and from behind her White House podium.
The Trump administration created and maintained an adversarial relationship with any press that wouldn't repeat their lies verbatim or offer fawning adoration for Donald Trump—referring to them as the "enemy of the people." Even Fox News didn't escape their wrath the few times they fact checked or dared not side completely with Trump.
Why that media didn't warmly embrace McEnany is a mystery only to her.
