Biden made the remark while speaking to CNN host Anderson Cooper about his infant son, suggesting that Cooper would “enjoy being home with the baby more” than moderating the event. McEnany was one of many to mock the comment on Twitter within hours, although a torrent of backlash over her tweet had emerged by the following morning.
“Signing off with a final notable quote from Joe Biden during his town hall this evening: ‘Everyone knows I love kids better than people,’” McEnany tweeted alongside a “thinking face” emoji, which shows a face with a raised eyebrow to signify contemplation.
“What a despicable thing to tweet,” lawyer and NBC contributor Katie S. Phang Tweeted. “Scary to think you’re a parent.”
“Talk about cancelled. you have no power here,” tweeted actor Rosanna Arquette. “Be gone before some one drops a house on you.”
“Sign off permanently,” writer Lesley Abravanel tweeted.
“You are a sad, miserable person. I would be justified in despising you given your comments about my husband and your support of the former president,” tweeted Rachel Vindman, the wife of former Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a star witness during former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment. “Instead, I pity you because you are completely pathetic.”
“The continuous feeding of the Q folk will be your legacy. … Along with your incredibly peppy way of being completely wrong,” Jesuit Catholic Priest Robert Ballecer tweeted while sharing a clip of McEnany pledging that Trump would make sure “we would not see diseases like the coronavirus come here” during a February 2020 Fox Business appearance.
“From a former WH colleague of McEnany’s: ‘This is 100% meant to stir up the qanon crowd. Awful,’” CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted.
McEnany responded to Tapper’s tweet, denying that her comments were intended to rouse believers in QAanon, the conspiracy theory that falsely claims that Trump is waging a secret war against Satanic Democrats that are heavily involved in child sex trafficking. McEnany told Tapper that his “source should put her name on the record if she claims to know the intent of my tweets.”
“I tweeted a revealing, bizarre quote from Joe Biden that underscores his horrific pro-choice, anti-child policies that have dehumanized life (Mexico City policy etc.),” explained McEnany.
McEnany served as White House press secretary for approximately nine months, having previously acted in the same role for the Trump campaign. She remained a fierce defender of Trump’s rhetoric and actions following the 2020 presidential election, when the former president focused on false claims that the election had been rife with massive voter fraud and his loss to Biden had been “stolen.”
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.
