White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt used a campus appearance to go after legacy media, defend voter ID laws, and make clear the administration is no longer relying on traditional outlets to carry its message.
She went straight to coverage of President Trump, arguing the tone is not occasional but constant across the outlets that drive the daily news cycle.
“We have, unfortunately, an overwhelmingly biased liberal media in this country… it is always in the 90s, 90% or more negative against the president in our policies.”
Inside the West Wing, that criticism shows up in how stories are handled. Staff track coverage overnight, flag inaccuracies, and move quickly to correct reporting before it spreads, often dealing with claims tied to unnamed sources.
“I read so many stories every day that are just completely baseless… sometimes they don’t even come to the White House for comment.”
It has not stayed internal. Independent creators and podcasters now receive credentials, ask questions in the briefing room, and travel alongside the traditional press corps.
Leavitt pointed to reach, noting that some of those newer voices now command audiences that rival or exceed those of legacy outlets, giving the administration a more direct line to voters.
“We would be opening the doors to non-traditional media… they have bigger audiences and followings than many of the legacy media journalists do.”
She tied that shift directly to the job, not as an experiment but as part of how the White House now communicates.
“It would have been a dereliction of my duty… if we did not welcome those new media voices into the briefing room.”
The tone tightened during an exchange over the SAVE AMERICA Act. A student argued voter fraud is rare and questioned whether stricter requirements risk excluding eligible voters, drawing both boos and applause from the crowd.
Leavitt did not take the premise at face value. She shifted the focus to the standard itself.
“Why are you okay with any voter fraud in the United States of America?”
She followed by dismissing concerns about access, framing identification requirements as a baseline expectation for elections.
“This idea that the SAVE AMERICA Act would disenfranchise anyone is frankly insulting.”
The bill remains a priority for President Donald Trump, having passed the House but stalled in the Senate amid Democratic opposition.
Leavitt described working for Trump as a more direct operation than past administrations, with little distance between internal conversations and public messaging.
“What you see is what you get… there’s no guessing, there’s no spin.”
The exchange showed exactly how the administration sees the landscape: skepticism of the press, a broader media landscape, and no backing off on the policies driving the fight.
Watch the full exchange here, beginning at the first hour mark:
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