White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany slammed the media during a press conference on Tuesday for its lack of coverage over the story involving Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and an alleged Chinese spy and for how many news organizations changed the way that they covered the Hunter Biden scandal.
“As former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said, bias is often found in stories the press does not cover,” she said. “And last week we found out that Democrat Congressman Eric Swalwell was infiltrated by an alleged Chinese spy. The spy cozied up to Swalwell, raised funds for his 2014 campaign, and even planted an intern in his office. And that relationship continued until the FBI briefed him in 2015, and that was some very good reporting done by Axios.”
“But after entangling with this spy for years, Swalwell hypocritically went on to be one of the lead instigators of the Russia collusion hoax and the impeachment sham,” she continued. “Swalwell wrote this on his congressional webpage: ‘President Trump and his team are directly and indirectly tied to Russia.’ That was not true. He then said in September of 2020, ‘The president has a compromised relationship with Russia.’ Untrue. April of 2019, he said, ‘President Trump certainly acts on Russia’s behalf and acts like Russia’s leader.’ Not true. January, 2019, Eric Swalwell said, ‘It’s pretty clear President Donald Trump is an agent of Russia.’ Not true.”
“And Swalwell shamelessly claimed Donald Trump Jr. And Jared Kushner had an eagerness and a willingness to work with the Russians during the 2016 election,” she said in her concluding remarks on the matter. “Again, it was false. In 2019, he falsely claimed this yet again when inquired about collusion by a reporter, and these baseless attacks were false yet covered breathlessly by the media. There was no coverage, however, of Swalwell being the one implicated with not Russia, but China. In fact, the New York Times website, as of this morning, had not one result for Eric Swalwell’s ties to Chinese spies. Not one result. And when the Swalwell story broke, guess how many minutes of coverage it got on ABC, NBC, MSNBC and CBS? Zero. CNN devoted three minutes and 16 seconds to it. However, it was covered on Fox.”
Immediately following her remarks on Swalwell, McEnany highlighted how the media has changed the way that it covered the scandal involving Joe Biden’s son. It is worth noting that the story changed recently as Hunter Biden issued a statement confirming that he was under federal criminal investigation, something that he had not confirmed before the election.
“Interesting pre-election and post-election coverage too, on the Hunter Biden scandal, which was not covered at all by many outlets in the lead up to the election,” she said. “In fact, on October 15, you had a New York Times headline that said, ‘Trump Said to Be Warned that He Was Being Given Russian Disinformation Over Hunter Biden.’ Now, December 10, just a few months later, New York Times headline: ‘Investigation of Hunter Biden is Likely to Hang Over Biden as he Takes Office.’ Washington Post on October 16, the headline read, ‘The Truth Behind the Hunter Biden Non-Scandal.’ Now you have the Washington Post headline that says this: ‘Hunter Biden Tax Probe Examining Chinese Business Deals.’ Politico, October 19, ‘Hunter Biden Story is Russian Disinformation,’ that’s a favorite, ‘Dozens of Former Intel Officials Say.’ False yet again. December 2, now Politico reads, ‘Justice Department’s Interest in Hunter Biden Covered More Than Taxes.’ Really interesting turn of events, and good for those who covered what was a story all along and not Russian disinformation.”
WATCH:
.@PressSec calls out the Media for their selective coverage of stories like the Hunter Biden story. pic.twitter.com/yfYRCX6JXg
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) December 15, 2020