The Media Research Center’s Curtis Houck continued his fluff jobs on White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in an April 8 post:
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt faced a mostly liberal, elite media press corps Wednesday afternoon that had a Costco-sized carton of eggs on their face from President Trump’s Truth Social post the night prior unveiling a preliminary peace deal with Iran following declarations “a whole civilization will die,” so it was no surprise some arrived with adversarial question.
This included two questioning whether the U.S. has lost the “moral high ground” in the world and against Iran, which has killed tens of thousands of protesters in the last year, criminalizes homosexuality, oppresses women, and has one of the worst records for press freedom.
The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg was the first to go down this road: “The U.S. has been a moral leader for most of its history by fighting wars against other governments, not against civilizations. How can the President claim that America can ever have the moral high ground if he’s threatening to destroy civilizations and not casting wars as fights against other governments?”
This question was proceeded by mention of the 2003 invasion of Iraq when “George W. Bush said in a message to the Iraqi people that the military campaign was directed against the lawless men who rule your country and not against you.”
Leavitt tore apart this attempt to equivocate, calling his line of question “insulting”:
[…]The other reporter was Katie Rogers of The New York Times, who first asked: “I’m — just given the gravity of what he said yesterday, what was your understanding of what he meant when he said, I’m — this civilization is going to be eliminated?”
Leavitt declared Trump’s promise to wipe out Iranian infrastructure was “a very, very strong threat from the President of the United States that led the Iranian regime to cave to their knees and ask for a cease-fire and agree to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, so it was a very strong threat that led to results.
[…]Earlier in the briefing, NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez similarly wondered “why is it appropriate for the President of the United States to use that kind of language when talking about civilian targets” even though “Iranian leaders have previously said Death to America[.]”
“And was the President mocking Islam by signing off his true social post over the weekend, ‘praise be to Allah.’ Wouldn’t that antagonize Muslim allies across the world,” he added.
As it was still early on in the briefing (Gutierrez was the second reporter called on), Leavitt calmly explained that while “I understand the questions about the President’s rhetoric…what the President cares most about is results and, in fact, his very tough rhetoric and his tough negotiating style is what has led to the result that you are all witnessing today.”
Neither Houck nor, apparently, Leavitt explained why Trump’s overheated rhetoric shouldn’t be taken into consideration. And given that the U.S. is still at war with Iran, it seems his “tough negotiating style” has not generated the results Americans want. Houck also made sure to give shout-outs to his favorite right-wing journalists:
Speaking of Vance, 2023 MRC Bulldog Award winner Mary Margaret Olohan inquired about security for the Vice President and fellow U.S. negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in Istanbul (as well as whether the U.S. “plan[s] to deport more relatives or people in the families of Iranian officials”):
[…]Fast-forwarding to the end, independent conservative journalist Lyndsay Keith sought to have Leavitt elaborate on Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s declaration U.S. troops would be, in her words, be “sticking around” during the two-week cease-fire. She was followed by Newsweek’s Leo Feldman wondering if Trump was considering withdrawing the U.S. from NATO:
Note to Houck: If you have to identify Keith as a conservative, she’s not “independent.”
Houck helped Leavitt ratchet things up in an April 27 post:
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered impassioned call Monday afternoon for the liberal, elite media and their elected allies to cease their years of hateful, incendiary rhetoric against President Trump and his tens of millions of supporters that sadly resulted at Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD) in an attempt on his life and many in his cabinet.
In perhaps her strongest press briefing opening statement of her tenure, Leavitt began by making clear “Saturday was supposed to be a joyful evening celebrating free speech and the First Amendment with all of you members of the press,” but was derailed “by a crazed anti-Trump individual who traveled across the country to assassinate the President and as many administration officials as possible.”
Next, she noted that “while we are blessed to have a fearless President, we should not live in a country where such constant fear of political violence permeates our society every single day.”
She correctly stated the timeless American ideal that “[w]e can and we should have fierce disagreement in this country” amongst each other, but they “must remain peaceful” as “debating, peaceful protesting, and voting are how we need to settle disagreements, not bullets.”
Of course, no mention was made of the hateful, incendiary rhetoric issued by Trump, particularly at the press for failing to act like the Trump Regime Media he (and Houck) want them to be.