Add The New York Post on Google Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says reporters have privately apologized to her for asking “unfair” questions, calling the press briefings “performative.”
On a Tuesday episode of Fox News anchor Sean Hannity’s podcast “Hang Out,” Leavitt, 29, said Hannity was correct in guessing that reporters were often “totally different people” when the cameras stopped rolling.
“There’s a performative aspect to the briefing room. In fairness, I think on both sides, right? But definitely with the press, and they have to do that because their bosses are demanding it,” Leavitt said.
“There’s been times reporters have even said to me, ‘I’m sorry I had to ask that today, you know, my bosses really wanted me to ask that,’” she added.
“They know it’s an unfair question but they’re not in control of their own, like, livelihood. They are dictated by the editors and the execs at some of these companies.”
Leavitt nodded to CBS News as an example of how network leadership can impact coverage of the Trump administration.
Last year, Paramount boss David Ellison installed Bari Weiss as the editor-in-chief and tasked her with bringing balance to the network.
Over the summer, she carried out a major rejiggering of “60 Minutes” that axed some longtime correspondents and added new ones, like Ross Douthat, formerly a conservative columnist at the New York Times.
“You know, we’re seeing big changes at CBS, which I think are great. I think we’ve seen a lot of improvement with them, and again, we’re not asking for, like, positive puff pieces every day. Just fairness. Truth. Accuracy,” Leavitt said.
“Writing about an executive order that the president of the United States signed should not be a questionable thing, should a journalist do that or not, it should just be, ‘Yeah, of course I’ll write about this,’” she added.
President Trump announced in August that Leavitt would be stepping down at the end of the month to spend more time with her children and family, calling her a “wonderful” press secretary and one of his “most trusted aides.”
Leavitt and her husband, Nicholas Riccio, 61, share two young children: a two-year-old son named Nicholas, or “Niko,” and a daughter Viviana, or “Vivi,” born in May.
Leavitt – a New Hampshire native and the youngest-ever White House press secretary – said she will return to her previous work at MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump political action committee.
The White House has not yet revealed a pick for Leavitt’s successor.
Possible contenders include Alina Habba, the former acting US attorney for New Jersey; Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle; former White House communications staffer Taylor Budowich and current White House communications director Steven Cheung, as The Post previously reported.
Katie Miller, wife of Stephen Miller and a former aide to Elon Musk; White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly; US chief of protocol Monica Crowley; pro-Trump CNN commentator Scott Jennings; and former political candidate Kari Lake could also be in the running.
