White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany called out Sen. Elizabeth Warren for presiding false statistics on the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday.
McEnany addressed Warren’s comments earlier in the day during the testimony of White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci before the Senate Health Committee.
Warren tried to use her questions to Dr. Fauci to embarrass the president, who had promised earlier in the year — when not much was known about the coronavirus — that the pandemic would be “contained.”
“Do we have the coronavirus contained?” she asked Fauci.
Dr. Fauci replied that it depended on the meaning of “containment,” and that the virus was not “completely out of control.” He noted that though there were “spikes” in parts of the country, the country was heading in the “right direction.”
Warren then asked: “We have about 25,000 new infections a day, and over 2,000 deaths a day. I think that’s the right numbers. And some are estimating we could be at 200,000 new cases a day by June 15. Is that right, Dr. Fauci?
He replied: “I don’t foresee that as 200,000 new cases [a day] by June. I am hoping and looking at the dynamics of things starting to flatten off and come down that we will be much, much better than that, Senator.”
Warren then asked again: Just so I could understand — we are right now at 2,000 new infections a day, and — 25,000 new infections a day, and 2,000 deaths a day.”
He said, “Right.”
Warren went on to slam the president, saying that the pandemic was not under control, adding: “President Trump needs to stop pretending that if he just ignores bad news it will go away.”
But the figures were incorrect.
McEnany used the opportunity of a question about when the press would speak with Dr. Deborah Birx again to correct Warren:
I talk to Dr. Birx regularly. In fact, I talked to her just before I came out here, because I had questions on funny numbers I heard from Senator Elizabeth Warren. And she helped me to correct those numbers, which I’d like to correct there, because I think it is unfair to the American people to give inflated case numbers and mortality numbers, because it leads to those same Americans to making the decision to not get a mammogram, to not have the cancer screenings they need. So I would like to just reveal to you some information Dr. Birx just shared with me. Elizabeth Warren erroneously said there were 25,000 new cases today. In fact, there were less between 20,000. Senator Warren said there were 2,000 deaths. In fact, there have been less than 1,000. So, I’d encourage our Democratic colleagues and all Americans to make sure we’re putting out there good information because it does have consequences.
McEnany referred to mammograms and cancer screenings because she had earlier referred to her own screenings, following a preventative double mastectomy, which she has written about before.
McEnany said that hospitals were empty because of the consequences of restrictions related to the pandemic, and that she was concerned about the potential results for cancer patients like herself.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.