Reuters photographer Jonathan Ernst on Thursday captured a closeup of White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany's briefing binder, showing the labeled topical tabs through which she frequently flips to find canned answers and other propaganda.
Mediaite reports: During her tenure, McEnany has developed a reputation for flipping open her briefing book after a particularly confrontational question and reading verbatim from pre-written responses, which often included canned attacks on the press or praise from allies. … McEnany's tabs include a number evergreen topics, but several recent ones as well. “Covid” and “Test” as well as “PPE,” “Masks,” “CDC,” and “Cases” suggest a healthy amount of prepared remarks on the raging pandemic. But also included in the binder were more ephemeral topics, like “Goya” about the controversy over the Trump-led counter-backlash to a liberal boycott of the food company, “Mary” which, presumably, refers to the president's niece and her damning tell-all book, and “Hogan,” which likely alluded to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's scathing Washington Post essay condemning Trump's pandemic response.
At her first briefing back in May, McEnany infamously told reporters, “I will never lie to you” — before promptly telling a few lies.
The other day, McEnany appeared to read from the “LGBT” section when she responded to a question about Trump's ban on transgender troops by saying, “I haven't talked to him about that specific policy, but this president is proud that in 2019 we launched a global initiative to end the criminalization of homosexuality throughout the world. He has a great record when it comes to the LGBT community. The Trump administration eased a ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men and he launched a plan to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, so we're very proud of our achievements.”
Reactions from Twitter below.
All those tabs yet this coulda covered every one of them… pic.twitter.com/XYCIYTdP3S
— chunkyb (@chunkybmcoc) July 16, 2020
She should just label the entire file “LIES.”
— Heather 🌊 (@AMpplH8r) July 17, 2020
With a black sharpie.
This is the book you need to keep all the lies straight.
— J. Quinten 🎧🎙 (@TheRealJQuinten) July 17, 2020
I miss the days when I used to laugh about “binders full of women.”
— ryann (@ryann00087108) July 17, 2020
Are we gonna talk about how a 32 year olds fingers look like this? pic.twitter.com/bh6c11EHLY
— J.C. Madsen, Daydrink Believer (@npsmajor) July 17, 2020
tweeted before, I'll tweet it again- she's Binder Tab Barbie. all questions answered with prefab tabs and qanon generated answers
— Teutonic⚘Titwillow (@lilyvnshtp) July 16, 2020
The ‘Wins' tab must be empty of information 🤷🏼♀️
— Theresa B., Texas Tee 🦋💐🌷🌹 (@TBoisseauATX) July 17, 2020
At least Sarah Sanders could lie without notes.
— Peter Romano (@DarkStar5050) July 16, 2020
This book might explain the vacant dingbat look we get just before she answers with a lie. She has to find the pre- written blurb to make sure she gets the lie correct. It's all just a spectacle to keep us distracted from the corruption.
— J.C. KWIKS (@JCKWIKS) July 17, 2020
Shouldn't everything be in the Absurd file?
— Mario Raez (@Sir_Mario1) July 17, 2020
WH Press: Can you please use multiple keywords so we can watch her explode while trying to figure out which tab to choose?
— Katies (@your_mominlaw) July 16, 2020