White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said MSNBC host Joe Scarborough is wrong after he suggested President Trump lied to reporters when he said this week he is taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure against contracting the coronavirus.
“Let me assure you, the president of the United States is not taking hydroxychloroquine,” Scarborough said on his program Tuesday morning. “So, he is not taking something that his own administration has said will kill you … That his own FDA said will kill you … That’s what doctors will say, too. The FDA said, take it if you’re in the hospital or take it if you’re in a closely watched clinical trial. But don’t take it unless you’re under those two circumstances. So, the president is not taking it, and yet, and yet, he’s telling Americans that they should take it.”
McEnany claimed Trump is indeed taking the drug and is doing so under the supervision of medical experts at the White House.
“Thankfully, President @realDonaldTrump is NOT listening to the fake Dr. Scarborough and instead consulted with a real medical doctor before taking hydroxychoroquine,” she said. “Happy to report that the President continues to be in great health!”
Thankfully, President @realDonaldTrump is NOT listening to the fake Dr. Scarborough and instead consulted with a real medical doctor before taking hydroxychoroquine.
Happy to report that the President continues to be in great health! https://t.co/Dap1dDXWJA
— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) May 19, 2020
Trump sent shockwaves through the media and the medical landscape when he said Monday he has been taking the anti-malarial drug for days.
“I happen to be taking it. I’m taking it, hydroxychloroquine. … A couple weeks ago, I started taking it,” he told reporters. “I get a lot of positive calls about it. … I take a pill every day.”
The announcement triggered outrage from some and accusations of deliberate distraction from others.
During an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday, McEnany said the reaction was largely overblown.
“The president just wanted to be transparent about his personal health decision that he made in consultation with his doctor, and one of the things that I really want to get out there this morning, that unfortunately there’s a lot of misinformation about is, you know, first: Let me emphasize strongly that any use of hydroxychloroquine has to be in consultation with your doctor,” McEnany said.
“Some of the misreporting on other networks, these apoplectic analyses of hydroxychloroquine, ignore the fact that tens of millions of people around the world have used this drug for other purposes, including some people in my communications office who used it for malaria prophylaxis before traveling to other parts of the world,” she continued.
