Exclusive | Karoline Leavitt reveals how she rules WH briefing room with an iron fist on Pod Force One
WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt touted the control she has of the briefing room and defended a recent crackdown on reporter access in an interview on “Pod Force One” out Wednesday.“I try, thank you,” Leavitt replied when “Pod Force One” host Miranda Devine gushed that she ruled the White House press briefing room with “an iron fist.”“I prepare a lot for the briefings, and I walk in there with a good grip on what they’re going to ask, because I read and I watch and I prepare all day, all morning,” Leavitt, 28, explained.Leavitt, the youngest White House press secretary in US history, acknowledged that sometimes the briefing room can get heated, but stressed that she wants her team to be “professional” with reporters.
“The press briefing room can be combative, and sometimes it is behind the scenes as well, but I tell our team that we need to be professional and get them facts, and nobody does that better than President Trump,” she said.“We will also work with good journalists who want to write good stories and try to make those stories as accurate as possible.”At times, Leavitt and others in the White House communications shop have been known to give snarky replies to lefty reporters who have a knack for getting on their nerves.Every week, Post columnist Miranda Devine sits down for exclusive and candid conversations with the most influential disruptors in Washington on ‘Pod Force One.’ Subscribe here!Last month, for example, Leavitt replied, “Your mom did,” in response to a HuffPost reporter’s question about who selected Budapest as the summit location for President Trump and Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin.That meeting was later scrapped.During Leavitt’s tenure, the White House has cracked down on the press, taking control of the pool reporter rotation from the White House Correspondents’ Association.
Pool reporters are journalists who get closer access to the president than the rest of the ...