White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany admitted fault after being told she mistakenly said President Trump’s latest Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, was a Rhodes scholar.
McEnany began a press briefing on Thursday by running down Barrett’s qualifications for the highest court in the country when she said, “She graduated summa cum laude from Notre Dame Law School where she received the Hoynes Prize for achieving the best record in scholarship, and she also is a Rhodes scholar.”
Barrett did not receive a Rhodes scholarship, an international postgraduate award that allows students to study at the University of Oxford in London. Rather, she obtained a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, before studying law at Notre Dame Law School.
The press secretary did not correct the record until a White House reporter followed up with her after she started taking questions.
“You said justice Barrett was a Rhodes scholar. I don’t know if that’s true,” the reporter said, which prompted McEnany to check her notes. “That’s what I have written here,” McEnancy said.
The reporter then offered, “She attended Rhodes College,” and McEnany acknowledged the mistake saying, “My bad.”
Kayleigh McEnany says in briefing that Amy Coney Barrett is a “Rhodes scholar.”
Barrett did not receive a Rhodes Scholarship, but rather received a bachelor’s degree from Rhodes College in Memphis.
When reporter points that out, McEnany says, “My bad” https://t.co/Nj065CIsxp pic.twitter.com/YpIFz4W1PA
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 1, 2020
