Karoline Leavitt Torches Media for Ignoring Iryna Zarutska’s Murder
“And perhaps most shamefully of all, the majority of the media, many outlets in this room decided that her murder was not worth reporting on originally because it does not fit a preferred narrative.”
The media has ignored the brutal murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte, NC, train. We’ve basically only seen “Republicans pounce” stories.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shamed the media for ignoring the story while they went crazy and smeared Daniel Penny in New York City.
The lecture is glorious:
Today, I would like to address the tragedy that has not received nearly enough media attention, the brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska. Here are the facts that many outlets have shamefully and intentionally failed to report until President Trump drew attention to it.
On August 22, Iryna was stabbed to death on the rail system in Charlotte, North Carolina, by a savage career criminal. This is a public transportation system that many in the area use every single day to go to school and work. Iryna was on the train that night, traveling home from her job at a pizzeria, still in uniform from her shift. This beautiful, innocent 23-year-old young woman was a Ukrainian refugee who had recently fled her country for a chance at a safer life in a promising new beginning here in the United States of America. But tragically, a public transportation system in a major American city was more dangerous than the active war zone that she left. The President and the entire White House are praying for her family and friends during this unimaginably difficult time.
But while we extend our thoughts and prayers, we must also seek justice for this crime and call attention to this heinous incident. Surveillance video of the killing was finally released to the public this past Friday. It shows the alleged killer, DeCarlos Brown Jr., pull out a knife, get up from his seat behind Iryna, and prepare to thrust a blade into her neck before the released footage gets cut. This is pure evil on full display.
The most enraging and unacceptable part of this story is that her death was entirely preventable. DeCarlos Brown never should have been on that train that night. In fact, he should have been behind bars. DeCarlos Brown has been charged with crimes no fewer than 14 times dating back to 2011, including for armed robbery, felony larceny, breaking and entering, and shoplifting. Brown had previously — previously served five years in prison for a robbery with a deadly weapon charge, and he had also forfeited bonds three different times, twice in 2014 and once in 2023. Despite all of this past documented criminal history, when Brown was arrested yet again in January of this past year, a judge who will, I will add, was a supporter, a strong supporter of former Vice President Kamala Harris, released this insane criminal once again without requiring him to pay any bail. He simply had to sign a written promise to return for his court hearing.
Think about how crazy it is to ask a career criminal, someone who, by definition, repeatedly breaks the law to just sign a written promise and come back again another day. This is madness. This monster should have been locked up and Iryna should still be alive. But Democrat politicians, liberal judges and prosecutors would rather virtue signal than lock up criminals and protect their communities.
And perhaps most shamefully of all, the majority of the media, many outlets in this room decided that her murder was not worth reporting on originally because it does not fit a preferred narrative.
Many of the journalists in this room spilled plenty of ink trying to smear Daniel Penny for defending a subway car from a deranged lunatic in New York City, but none of those same reporters lift a finger to write stories about an actual murderer.
Here is the truth that every American must know. Too many innocent people across the country continue to pay the price of the failed experiment, known as cashless bail, that has been championed by the Democrat Party for years. All the way back in 2020, North Carolina’s then-Democrat Governor Roy Cooper, established a so-called Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice. Sounds nice, but it’s not. That task force was coauthored by then attorney general and current Democrat Governor Josh Stein. It recommended, ‘reimagining public safety’ to ‘promote diversion and other alternatives to arrest.’ It also advised to de-emphasize some felony crimes, prioritize ‘restorative justice,’ and eliminate cash bail.
Democrats in North Carolina and nationwide are consumed with pushing a woke soft on crime agenda, no matter how many innocent Americans suffer as a result. Instead of aggressively prosecuting and locking up violent criminals, the Democrat-backed cashless bail approach lets these criminals roam free in our country to offend again and again. These reckless policies have turned too many — many of American cities into hunting grounds for career criminals who mock our justice system, drain law enforcement resources, and wreak havoc on law abiding citizens.
Enough is enough. And that is why President Trump is doing everything in his power by taking action to undo these absurd policies.
The president recently signed a powerful executive order directing the AG to submit a list of states and local jurisdictions with cashless bail policies so that the Trump administration may identify federal funds that can — are being provided to these states and can potentially be suspended or terminated. President Trump firmly believes that, to maintain order in public safety, we must incarcerate individuals whose pending criminal charges or criminal history demonstrate a clear, ongoing risk to civil society. This is a common sense and sensible approach that the vast majority of Americans agree with, and it’s time for the Democrat Party to get on board with what is right.
When these criminals are caught, they must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and be sent to prison where they can no longer terrorize our streets. This is the mandate the American people delivered to President Trump, and it’s a mandate he intends to fulfill.
.@PressSec Karoline Leavitt on stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, NC: "This is pure evil on full display. The most enraging and unacceptable part of this story is that her death was entirely preventable." pic.twitter.com/3LTvD3jtm7
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 9, 2025
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Democrats and their policies are the real threat to us all.
“White supremacy … is the single most dangerous terrorist threat in our homeland. And I’m not just saying this because I’m at a Black HBCU. I say this wherever I go.”
–JOE BIDEN, AMERICA’S STUPIDEST PRESIDENT
Democrats and the black populace
She was a pretty white Ukranian woman brutally murdered by a black man. Now if the murderer had only been a Russian we would never hear the end of it.
They. Don’t. Care….
I can’t believe I’m going to say this. But, Karoline Leavett is at least as good as both Huckabee-Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany. While Trump has had his share of problems surrounding himself with the best people at times, he hit it out of the park all three times he chose a WHY Spokesperson.
Who’s taken over your posts? 🤔
She’s doing fine, though with Kari Lake on the bench, I’ll always wonder why Trump didn’t snap her up for the job. She’s the best I’ve ever seen for shutting down gotcha journalists and making them look stupid.
why fear saying that
she has been the superstar
I didn’t think he’d be able to top Kayleigh McEnany (except, of course, with Kari Lake) but Karoline is as good, or better, without needing a binder full of notes.
Sh*tlibs and their journo lackeys aren’t just annoying. They’re a danger to public safety.
It’s a clickbait murder in the first place. Pretty white woman, black perp.
How many other murders on the same day, who knows. Many. Every day.
Yes, like this similar one – https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/us/alabama-murder-vet-park.html
Your an idiot
Once again, rhhardin steps up to the “I Am Retarded” home plate and knocks another one out of the park.
“It’s a clickbait post in the first place. Stupid white man, black perp.
How many other posts on the same day, who knows. Many. Every day.”
FIFY, just to make it about you.
Gutfeld 9/9 made the same scam. Using it to ridicule democrats who said it’s presented as racist bait. But the democrats are right.
Hold up your hand if you’ve been against murders of blacks by blacks, ought to have been the democrat point. Why haven’t you been rallying on those? The dems can’t say that because they haven’t. They are against rallying in general, is the current state.
But it is true that you rally white people with the murder of a pretty white woman. You can’t do it with the murder of black women.
Lesson – be particularly skeptical of outrage rallies. Somebody’s setting you up for something. In particular what is Trump up to. Eternal vigilance and all that.
Here is a Chicago Trib editorial:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/09/charlotte-iryna-zarutska-decarlos-brown-train-murder/
“It also was remarkable that passengers — and the train car held plenty of other folks — didn’t react more strongly to the horrific violence.”
FOUR HUNDRED police officers in Uvalde were too frightened to open a door to confront a single kid with a rifle.
You’re expecting a lot from a bunch of unconstitutionally disarmed common citizens on a gun-free train.
As I’ve commented elsewhere, in no sane society does that perp get out of that rail car alive.
thanks
but look at the sick statement not only from the black matriarchy but the tribune itself:
She also said “we will never arrest our way out (of) issues such as homelessness and mental health” and said of the mentally ill that they should be “treated with the same compassion, diligence and commitment as cancer or heart disease.”
And, of course, both of those statements are correct.
of course you can “arrest our way out of it”
these people should not be on the streets
arrest away
The Democrat/ Marxists Propaganda Ministry stays away from everything not in their agenda.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15081607/Iryna-Zarutska-Ukranian-stabbing-Decarlos-Brown-new-video-train-North-Carolina.html
After the attack, the surveillance video plays audio of someone saying ‘… got that white girl’.
In 2016, the same idiots in my state who have kept democrats in control forever, passed a Constitutional amendment eliminating cash bail and prohibiting pre-trial detention unless prosecutors can prove the accused pose a high risk to the community. So basically, unless the accused is caught standing over the body with the murder weapon or they confess to the crime, they are set free prior to trial. So how’s that working out for us? We have experienced increases in both new pre-trial offenses and failures to appear in court. And the best part? All the shrieking from the same people who voted for this mess (it passed with 87% of the vote). They didn’t bother to research their vote, they did what the local democrat offices and the media told them and voted yes.
One potentially overlooked factor is that there’s a Mayoral election in Charlotte…. so legacy media had a near term incentive to ignore this story as long as possible to assist their ideological allies in Charlotte.
Sorry, not sorry…every time I see a BLM sticker on a car I make damn sure they see my one-finger salute.
“Vote Dhimmi-crat — vote for the Party that’s been reliably and staunchly coddling illegal aliens, criminals and terrorists, since 1828.”
This incident doesn’t even have the redeeming (by MSM standards) quality of having involved the use of a firearm that can take the blame. No wonder they avoided it as long as they could.