How Karoline Leavitt Changed the White House Press Room

The new media seat was a good idea.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving her post after two years in order to spend more time with her young children. This is not a particularly surprising development: Press secretary appears to be a demanding job in any administration, and presidents are known to go through several of them. Former President Joe Biden had Jen Psaki and then Karine Jean-Pierre during his single term.

The job of the press secretary is to communicate the president's talking points while dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging (the five D's!) hostile lines of inquiry from the media. As such, it's a hard role to compliment. Leavitt was certainly an adept interlocutor and didn't seem to get tripped up nearly as frequently as Jean-Pierre, whose level of willful delusion about Biden's cognitive fitness reached staggering proportions.

Of course, Leavitt had her less-than-stellar moments, too. She once chewed out The Hill's Niall Stanage, my occasional Rising co-host, for giving his opinion on the shooting of Renée Good. This was intended as some great triumph over Stanage and the liberal media, and also proof of his bias, but Leavitt had asked him to give his opinion, so what was he supposed to do?

In fact, there are more opinions than ever before in the White House press briefing room. This is a positive aspect of the legacy Leavitt will leave behind: She opened up the press pool to nontraditional journalists from the alternate media and the world of podcasting by creating a designated "new media" seat. It was a good move that reflected both the changing nature of the media and the rise of influencers as a source of news about and support for the administration.

Not all occupants of the new media seat have raised worthwhile points, and supporters of independent media should press their favorite figures to actually ask tough questions rather than just engage in cheerleading for Trump or whomever succeeds him. But overall, the idea of expanding the circle was a good one: It is no longer the case that a handful of supposedly objective straight-news reporters representing major print and television companies are the only sources of information about what's happening in the White House.

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This Week on Free Media

I am joined by Amber Duke (in person!) to discuss Woke 1 and Flock cameras.

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Worth Watching

I loved the third season finale of House of the Dragon! Finally, Rhaenyra—who is right about everything—is ready to do what it takes to win the war and crush the greens. I have more thoughts here:

Finally caught up on House of the Dragon, which improved itself significantly and offered a fairly satisfying finale. Rhaenyra's descent into "madness" (which I put in scare quotes because she's not particularly mad; on the contrary, she's completely justified in everything she… pic.twitter.com/QWlmjlxTgh

— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) August 11, 2026

 

Comments

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

The after show commentary part featured more than 1 cast and crew describing Rhaneara's descent into or evoking of "Fascism".

SO incredibly stupid, a conquering monarchy at war with itself, in a primitive feudal economy, that will starve or butcher tens thousands and burn thousands more with bioweapons of mass destruction, and we're supposed to be scared of the trappings of "Fascism", which apparently means giving a speech on a balcony dressed in swanky dark clothes with weird makeup after unsuccessfully co-opting the church to the regime.

DO THOSE IDIOTS EVEN KNOW WHAT IT MEANS? AT ITS WORST, FASCISM BETTER THAN THE SYSTEM THEY ALREADY HAVE in the makebelievland of Westeros.

[DesigNate]

They, in fact, do not know what Fascism means.

[mad.casual]

Are you sure they aren't saying "Faciaism"? 🙂

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

which apparently means giving a speech on a balcony dressed in swanky dark clothes with weird makeup after unsuccessfully co-opting the church to the regime.

Darth Biden did it first.

[mad.casual]

dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging (the five D's!)

Made for $20M, pulled in $170M, the protagonist plays the same typecast role he has (and others have) played in a dozen other movies, ends with a treasure chest with "Deus Ex Machina" written on it, holds a 72% score on RT, and 20 yrs. later has multiple scenes with different characters (including a cameo by Lance Armstrong) that you can picture in your head simply by reference.

OTOH we have a film that, made a billion dollars, is "better than LOTR", and more acclaimed and honorable (or will be) because the guy who brought us "Why so serious?" also brought us Matt Damon shouting "Let's go!" and a black, scarred Helen of Troy.

Dude really did a bang up job of updating a classic for modern audiences. Really created a truly original and enduring classic. As I said previously and has been repeatedly demonstrated as their MO throughout "Woke 1", they cannot allow it to fail.

[Bubba Jones]

Rhaenrya has shown no particular interest or patience with actual ruling.

She vacillates between abdicating for the good of her people, and starving them for her own legacy.

[Dillinger]

>>Leavitt had asked him to give his opinion, so what was he supposed to do?

supposed to remember he's on the demand side of the questions always.

[Jesse fantasizes about having a 3some with Dave Smith and Maddow]

Perhaps Leavitt didn’t like being used as a decoy for Iranian an assassination attempt.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Is she as talented as Jessica Tarlov Robbie?

[Will Nonya]

Am I the only one who finds Amber somwhete between insufferable and intolerable?

[Social Justice is neither]

LOL Robby, could the new media not come up with questions as tough as "what has most enchanted you about the White House"?

[Daddyhill]

"The new media seat was a good idea."

Maybe so. We'll just have to wait until King Baby leaves office. Future occupants may prefer a different vibe.

What wasn't a good idea, in my view, was the obvious relish with which she propagated Trump's lies, embellished them, cranked up their volume to 11, and advised the new and old journalists to suck 'em up and swallow. Personally I couldn't stand more than 6-8 minutes of her show at a single (infrequent) sitting. To be fair, now I can't listen much to Rachel Maddow either. To be even fairer, when Rush died I began to lose my only reliable supply of high-quality mental floss. You know, it's about the attention one pays to the words and voice of some grifter with a Master's degree, some library cards, and a carnie tattoo; someone who is practiced at the art of deception, using OED-level vocabulary instead of SBC. So I'm listening and every now and then making notes concerning something he just said that tickled my curiosity bone: "I'm pretty sure that's wrong, but why or how do I know? Best find my own library card."

BTW: "...leaves office." He will really do that this time, right? Of course he will, right? Right?!!?

[Uomo Del Ghiaccio]

Karoline Leavitt has been a good White House press secretary even though she like every other White House press secretary has been biased. She might actually be more even-handed than most, but hardly considered as non-partisan.

[TD]

She could more than hold her own with the press. In fact, she ran circles around them and regularly showed America that the White House press are largely dumber than posts. I'm not sure this was the best use of her talents, and I wonder if she will one day regret choosing to get so close to Trump, but she's smarter than most reporters.

[Liberty_Belle]

Hard to say someone is good, when the people who would have been the most adversarial have been banned by Trump.

I could win the superbowl if you banned the opposing team.