Leavitt Celebrates White House Tenure Amidst Replacement's Short Stint
Former Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shared a highlight reel of her press briefings following the abrupt termination of her successor.
Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has shared a compilation of her press briefing highlights, days after her replacement, Katie Zacharia, was terminated after just five days on the job. Leavitt, 29, stepped down from her role in late August to focus on her young children.
Zacharia, 42, was appointed as the new press secretary on October 9. However, her tenure was cut short following criticism of her demeanor during her debut briefing and reports that she had not passed the bar exam, despite identifying herself as an attorney. Her brief time in the role was shorter than Anthony Scaramucci's 11-day stint as White House communications director in 2017. Zacharia had previously served for six weeks as a communications adviser at Homeland Security earlier this year and before that, was a senior communications adviser at Trump Media & Technology Group.
Leavitt's reposted video featured exchanges where she directly challenged reporters. In one clip, she responded to a question about peaceful protests by calling it a "stupid question." When asked about the alleged use of an autopen by the Biden administration, Leavitt retorted, "You're a reporter. You should find out."
Another segment showed Leavitt engaging with an Associated Press reporter on the topic of tariffs. She stated that fair and balanced trade would increase domestic revenues and wages, and expressed regret for taking a question from the AP, implying an insult to her knowledge of economics. The compilation also included instances where Leavitt characterized reporters as "biased," "hack," and "left-wing activists."
The video, originally posted in August, garnered over 2.1 million views and 125,000 likes on Instagram. Leavitt has since accepted a contributor role at Fox News and is also taking on a role at a GOP-aligned PAC.
Leavitt's press briefings typically averaged about 45 minutes, while Zacharia's debut briefing lasted only 14 minutes and allowed questions from just three reporters.