CNN’s Don Lemon expressed his frustration Tuesday night with White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who he criticized for continually spreading disinformation: “Girl, bye.”
Lemon discussed the White House press briefing held by McEnany earlier that day, in which she sidestepped questions on whether President Donald Trump would acknowledge Joe Biden as the president-elect. Biden officially secured enough electoral votes on Monday to become America’s 46th president on Jan. 20.
McEnany repeatedly deferred those questions to Trump’s campaign ― for which she at times has spoken for ― and noted more than once that the president was pursuing “ongoing litigation.”
Lemon said on “CNN Tonight” that McEnany was acting like “the election didn’t even happen... acting like she’s not about to be out of a job.”
“Do you know she also works for ―” Lemon said, before cutting himself off to say the popular phrase, “Girl, bye.”
“Girl, bye,” he repeated, as seen in clips widely shared on Twitter. “Buh-bye.”
“So much disinformation coming from the podium... it’s every day... comes out, reads propaganda,” Lemon continued.
He then condemned McEnany for her propensity ― on display Tuesday ― to attack the media. Lemon noted that she is a former CNN commentator (in that role, she occasionally had been critical of Trump).
“Talks about what the media is doing, criticizes the media, ‘This is what you should be covering,’” Lemon said, parroting McEnany. “I think we got this. You used to sit here on the set with us, I think we got it. When you sat here with us you thought we had it. You were happy to be here but now we don’t know what we’re doing? Girl, bye.”
During Tuesday’s press briefing, McEnany criticized the way news organizations have covered the incoming president’s son, Hunter Biden, who is being investigated by federal prosecutors in Delaware over tax issues.
“Really interesting turn of events and good for those who covered what was a story all along and not Russia disinformation,” McEnany said at the end of the briefing.
Following the recent revelation of the probe of the younger Biden’s finances, Trump and his allies have harshly criticized the media for not having focused more attention on him before the November election.
Jim Acosta, CNN’s chief White House correspondent, responded to McEnany’s criticism, asking her as she walked away from the podium: “Is it hypocritical to accuse others of spreading disinformation when you spread it every day?”
He got no response.