During Tuesday afternoon’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took the liberal media to task from start to finish on everything from the anti-Semitic terror attack in Boulder, Colorado to fighting fentanyl to Gaza to the National Weather Service. And, in between those, she faced plenty of good faith questions…and others not so much.
Leavitt tore into The Washington Post in her lengthy opening remarks, specifically nuking from orbit the Bezos paper for its “despicable” and “ridiculous” piece declaring it to be a true mystery as to why fentanyl seizures at the U.S.-Mexico border have plummeted (click “expand”):
On the topic of immigration, The Washington Post just ran one of the most ridiculous headlines ever, even by their standards. And, on my very first briefing, several months ago, I said I would hold anyone accountable in this room. The Washington Post actually had this headline: The mysterious drop in fentanyl seizures on the U.S.-Mexico border.” How is this mysterious? There is no mystery about why there is a decrease in fentanyl coming into the United States. This administration's strong border policies are the reason there has been a decrease in fentanyl trafficking. His strengthened relationship with Mexican President Sheinbaum, and all of the measures he has been taking to deter illegal human and drug trafficking at our United States southern border is the reason for plummeting fentanyl seizures at the U.S. border. There is nothing mysterious about that, and we'd like to see The Washington Post update their headline accordingly. This is clearly trying to intentionally manipulate the minds of the Americans – and I think the American people understand why there has been a fentanyl drop. And our office responded to this increased, we provided a whole host of the reason for fentanyl seizures at the southern border have dropped and The Washington Post refused to run them and that’s despicable.
She closed with three more positive statistics the liberal media will avoid like the plague in inflation having dropped 2.1 percent and personal income up nearly one percent (0.8) in April and egg prices having fallen 61 percent since President Trump took office.
Our friend Amanda Head was in the new media seat, representing the great people at Just the News and asked about vaccines and this on anti-Semitism:
NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell followed and she followed up on what seems to be a liberal media-wide push at the start of hurricane season to suggest the administration is woefully unprepared due to Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts to the workforce….planting the seed people might die due to inaccurate forecasts.
Asked specifically whether Trump is ready for hurricane season and if he’s had briefings, Leavitt wasn’t having this nonsense, at one point telling her should wouldn’t “engage in such fodder”:
Other reporters again showed they can ask challenging questions with some modicum of respect. Along with one on Ukraine from The New York Times’s Jonathan Swan, here was Reuters’s Jeff Mason asking about China:
The liberal media said before and since President Trump has taken office that conservative media would be potted plants for the administration. While some have wasted their chance to ask questions of substance, others make it count with genuine questions about the administration making good on their promises.
Here was Kelly Wright – a former Fox News anchor and now with CBN News and NTD News – wondering if the administration could do anything of substance to fight anti-Semitism (click “expand”);
WRIGHT: I want to get back to the anti-Semitic behavior that’s been going on college campuses and as well as recently in Boulder, Colorado. The President, as you know, has the white house Faith Office, the Religious Liberty Commission, as well as the Anti- – Task Force on anti-Christian bias which includes anti-Semitism. From a whole of government perspective, and the President has already mentioned how he hates these kinds of acts that have been going on, can these entities and these agencies work together with the President to put together a proactive campaign to help people stop the hate?
LEAVITT: I think the President himself has been leading on this, Kelly, and has been incredibly clear in his rhetoric that he is not going to tolerate such hate or behavior in the United States of America, and you will see that rhetoric being followed up by action from the Department of Justice, who is seeking to prosecute these cases to the fullest extent of the law. And I know the attorney general and the FBI director were very quick to call this what it was, targeted terrorism, and there was some, I think, criticism from the media and – well, at least pundits, I saw on television, saying are they too quick to jump here? No, they see the facts and they reveal those to the American people and they’re transparent and I think, frankly, that’s a breath of fresh air from what we have experienced in the previous administration.
WRIGHT: Are there programs that they can put in place to campaign against this kind of violence, to actually take a whole approach to say, we want to get ahead of you, if you are thinking it, don't do it, and if you are going to do it, sit down and talk to someone within the faith office, within the Religious Liberty Commission, as well as the task force?
LEAVITT: Yeah. surely commits a good idea and I will pass along to them. [CHUCKLES]
Doocy Time finally arrived following Wright and started with the autopen saga:
Doocy then challenged Leavitt on whether the administration looking into this is worth it: “Is there any concern that this President, who won the election on a promise to fix the economy and close the border, that focusing and scrutinizing these Biden pardons is looking into the past instead of forward?”
Leavitt replied in part that it’s not compared “to the amount of time this President has spent on securing the border, on fixing our economy,” and “solving the global conflicts abroad” while, at the same time, it matters since “Americans saw with their own eyes a mentally incompetent president and they want answers.”
Doocy used his final question to ask about the then-breaking news with Elon Musk’s tweet blasting Trump’s one Big, Beautiful Bill, but Leavitt brushed it aside as something they were well aware of in terms of Musk’s opposition.
Leavitt later lit up a reporter who asked about “reports that Israeli forces are firing on Palestinians trying to get aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” focusing in particular on the liberal media’s penchant for putting its faith and trust in a terrorist organization;
Gray TV’s Jon Decker then feigned outrage about the plight of illegal immigrant farm workers:
In contrast, podcaster Alec Lace probably drew some laughs when he wondered if there would be a presidential declaration about Pride Month:
At the other end of that spectrum, Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese had a deathly serious question about cracking down on sanctuary cities like Boulder, Colorado:
To see the relevant transcript from the June 3 briefing (including even more questions), click here.
