WH’s Leavitt Calls on ‘Ruthless’ Co-Host, Asked by NBC About Black History Month

January 31st, 2025 5:43 PM

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt likely made more liberal media heads explode on Friday afternoon as, along with calling on our friends at the Daily Wire and receiving respectful yet tough questions from Fox’s Peter Doocy and Newsmax’s James Rosen, she called on one of the co-hosts from the Ruthless Podcast, a fine variety progrum.

Leavitt opened the Q&A portion of her second briefing on the job with the Ruthless as the recipients of the “new media” seat:

As only the fellas could, Ashbrook insulted the liberal media sitting around him to their faces in his question: “[I]n your first briefing, the media went after this administration for deporting illegal immigrants they claimed were not criminals. The question is, do you think they’re out of touch with Americans demanding action on our border crisis?”

Leavitt dialed up the sarcasm before citing the facts (click “expand”):

The media? Out of touch. I think that media certainly is out of touch, and I think that’s proven by a number of things, John. Number one, there was a New York Times poll that was released prior to President Trump’s inauguration by The New York Times, which of course is a legacy media outlet, that showed that 83 percent of Americans support deporting the individuals that you mentioned, illegal immigrant criminals, especially those who have committed heinous crimes in the interior of our country, and I received a very — actually interesting statistic on this front from ICE this week. 97 of the deportations that this administration has made thus far are of individuals who had a — a removal order from the previous administration, but we’re never removed from the interior of our country, so this shows that the previous administration was actually defying our laws and all this administration is doing is simply uh following the laws, the immigration laws of this great country. Thanks for the question, John. 

This went right into Doocy Time. While more than a few probably thought Fox’s Peter Doocy would just roll over and ask softballs to a Republican administration, they were proven wrong. Just like he did with Biden regime officials, Doocy asked brief but challenging and substantive questions, starting with this:

 

 

Doocy slightly rephrased it for a follow-up: “Was the air traffic controller in the DCA tower on Wednesday night, hired or not fired at some point because of his or her race?”

Leavitt also doubled down, saying she wouldn’t “confirm those” names although Trump “has still rightfully pointed out that there has been problems with the aviation industry over the past several years, and this started under Barack Obama in 2014.”

Doocy’s final question concerned the helicopter: “And when the President says on Truth Social, ‘The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it,’ is he suggesting a helicopter malfunction or a crew error or a crew doing this intentionally?”

Leavitt replied that Trump was simply stating a point that’s out in the ether, but otherwise would “let [the NTSB] investigation play out.”

NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell had questions suggesting opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies would lead to a silencing of government agencies being able to mark Black History Month:

In a change from the Biden regime, questions about the evils of transgenderism are not only welcomed, but answered from the press secretary. Such was the case when Leavitt called out our friend Mary Margaret Olohan of the Daily Wire:

Speaking of changes, Leavitt not only called on the New York Post’s Steven Nelson, but didn’t snidely react to his questions. This one concerned a policy we’ve documented that Nelson repeatedly pressed the previous White House on:

He also asked about the economy, including New York Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul’s Manhattan congestion pricing and whether the President would demand Congress pass legislation to implement his policies to bar taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security.

Later, One America News Network’s Daniel Baldwin and another reporter asked about illegal immigration (with the former wondering why use Guantanamo Bay to house illegals on their deportation journey and the latter on whether localities not cooperating with raids are braking the law) (click “expand”):

BALDWIN: Back on the Guantanamo Bay, specifically, obviously, why does the President feel like that’s the best location or a good location to make sure that Americans are safe from violent — illegal migrant crime?

LEAVITT: Well, it’s a really good question, and the memorandum that he signed — the order that he signed builds on his previous executive actions obviously to secure our southern border and deport illegal criminals From the interior of our country. We know that we have an issue with detention space here in the interior, which is a big reason why Congress needs to pass this reconciliation package as quickly as possible to ensure that DHS and ICE have the funding they need to detain these individuals that the administration is very swiftly rounding up and — AND deporting, arresting, and deporting these illegal immigrant criminals, and so the president feels it’s an appropriate place. Taxpayers are already funding it. The space is there. Why not use it? And the Secretary of Defense, as I said, is working on that as we speak.

(....)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So, I want to talk more about the success that ICE is having finding these violent criminal aliens, some of them being sexual predators. But my friend Ben Berquam reports that the Chicago mayor and the Illinois governor are preventing ICE agents from going into jails and prisons to enforce detainers against illegal aliens. In Maryland, the Attorney General has also put out a memo hindering local police cooperation with ICE. Does the administration have any comment on leftist state local officials defying ICE and T rump’s deportation efforts?

LEAVITT: Yeah, I think it’s very interesting that Democrat officials in these cities who have been completely overrun and overwhelmed by illegal immigrant criminals would refuse support and help to cure this problem that has especially taken over their cities. I guess they don’t want to admit they’ve been wrong with their sanctuary city policies, I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask them about their intentions, but they would be very wise to comply with this administration because this administration is hellbent on enforcing our nation’s immigration laws and this administration will continue to arrest and detain and deport illegal migrant criminals, and what we won’t do is defy our nation’s immigration laws like the previous administration who had these orders of removal on illegal immigrants across the country and were refusing to execute on them. We will continue to remove illegal criminals from our nation’s interior sanctuary city leaders.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are — are these sanctuary city leaders — are they violating the law?

LEAVITT: I would certainly think so. I’d have to check back on which specific law they’re violating, but certainly if they’re not enforcing our nation’s immigration law, sounds like they are breaking the law, and I would also add that their constituents don’t approve of that. You’ve seen residents in Chicago show up at their city council meetings infuriated with their leadership in that city because they are working very hard to provide for their families. They want public safety and law and order and their officials have abandoned those very basic American principles in these cities and the American people want law and order. It’s, again, an overwhelmingly popular policy to deport illegal criminals from our nation’s interior in this administration will continue to affect that goal.

Newsmax’s James Rosen closed the briefing with two deep, substantive foreign policy questions. He started with Iran:

The other concerned Venezuela and whether the Trump administration engaging in dialogue with the dictatorial regime (illegitimately) in power would give them legitimacy they don’t deserve.The final question was much like Doocy’s concerning Wednesday night’s horrifying tragedy over the Potomac River and specifically Trump’s personal conduct (click “expand”):

 

 

 

ROSEN: Just on the President’s use of language in this room yesterday —

LEAVITT: Sure.

ROSEN: — and without seeking to cast myself as some kind of moral exemplar because it’s rather late in the day to try. Nonetheless, this was an event yesterday that began with a moment of silence. The victims of the air crash and the President’s own invocation of “a loving God.” And then he uncorked that expletive to insult a former cabinet officer. It was the same expletive that I saw him use in the East Room in 2020 when he famously held up the “Trump Acquitted” headline. My question is if you could shed any light for us on how the President perceives his use of public profanity, which is a practice that certainly sets them apart from all of his predecessors. Does he regard it as an effective communications device, part of his appeal, or is it something that he lapses into inadvertently perhaps in times of frustration and later regrets?

LEAVITT: I think one of the things that the American people love most about this President is that he often says what they are thinking, but sometimes lack the courage to say themselves, and I think yesterday at this podium you heard President Trump express great frustration, perhaps even anger with the previous administration’s policies, many of which have led to the crises that our country is currently facing and that this President is focused on fixing.

To see the relevant transcript from January 31’s briefing (including even more questions, such as ones from Fox Business’s Edward Lawrence on tariffs against Canada and then someone in the Bloomberg Government seat wondering if government workers with disabilities have reason to be concerned about their employment), click here.