During Monday afternoon’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt ripped CNN for what had seemed to her like “unacceptable” behavior by “a major network” in “promot[ing]” an app that reveals the location of Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officers, saying it’s “an incitement of further violence against our ICE officers” amid a historic spike in attacks against the brave men and women removing illegal immigrants.
Our friend and 2023 Media Research Center Bulldog Award winner Mary Margaret Olohan brought up, standing from her perch on one of the aisles representing the Daily Wire (click the tweet to read the full back-and-forth):
Elsewhere, Fox’s Peter Doocy was back in the Briefing Room and he had this hardball for Leavitt:
Doocy twice followed up, including on a proposal by Congressman Andy Ogles (R-TN) to explore stripping Mamdani of U.S. citizenship that the far-left radical obtained in 2018:
DOOCY: There’s this congressman, Andy Ogles, he wants the Attorney General Pam Bondi to explore denaturalization proceedings because he thinks Mamdani could have misrepresented or concealed material support for terrorism based on the rap lyrics that he wrote in 2017. Does President Trump think this is a worthwhile use of the attorney general’s time?
LEAVITT: Well, I’ll let the President speak to that. I have not seen those claims, but surely, if they are true, it’s something that should be investigated.
DOOCY: And could President Trump see himself — you said you just talked to him about this.
LEAVITT: Mmhmm
DOOCY: Could he see himself working with a Mayor Mamdani, somebody who — on Meet the Press this weekend — was given three chances to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada,’ but he couldn’t?
LEAVITT: Yeah, look, the President is willing to work with anyone. He’s working with Democrats across the country — Democrat governors — and he said that he ‘ll work with people on the far left. He works with Republicans. He works people in the middle. He wants to do what’s right for America, but surely someone who holds these values and is quite literally a communist and condemns every value that makes this country great, common sense, law and order, low taxes, working hard, and earning your keep in this country, he’s against all of that, and I think the president would find it difficult to work with someone like that. If he is elected, I am sure you will hear more from the President on that. But we’ll have to see. Hopefully the voters of New York City choose wisely.
In yet a third example Monday of how at least some in conservative media come with real, probing questions for the Trump administration, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann challenged Leavitt on the rumored temporary halt on ICE operations for farm workers:
Wegmann also brought up legislation by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) to further slash the size of the already slimmed down Office of the Director of National Intelligence, but Leavitt said she was unsure if President Trump “is even aware of that legislation, but I will get you a response if he is aware and if he wants to respond to it.”
At the start of the briefing, radio talk show host John Fredericks moved from his usual perch in the aisles to the “new media seat, ” asking about the Big, Beautiful Bill and the President’s disgust with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell:
To see the relevant transcript from the June 30 briefing, click here.
