The White House Press Secretary lashed out at the media on Friday. She appeared to blame the media for misrepresenting Donald Trump’s comments on injecting disinfectant.
Following widespread condemnation of the President’s remarks, Kayleigh McEnany issued a characteristically combative press release.
“President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday’s briefing,” McEnany said.
“President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday’s briefing. Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context…†press sec says. pic.twitter.com/4dVWHtK7T1
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— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 24, 2020
“Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines.”
McEnany’s response seems tone deaf under the circumstances. Medical experts and public health professionals condemned his suggestion that injecting disinfectant could help fight Covid-19.
On Friday, the manufacturer of Lysol and Dettol took the extraordinary step of saying customers should not ingest or inject their products. The statement didn’t mention Trump, however.
“As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),” the Reckitt Benckiser group said.
“I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute,” Trump said at Thursday’s Coronavirus press briefing.
“One minute! And is there a way we can do something by an injection inside or almost a cleaning?”
“Because you see it gets in the lungs . . . so it’d be interesting to check that,” the President said.
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Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media
