Karoline Leavitt announced she was stepping down as White House Press Secretary, and the left couldn’t even let her leave gracefully.
Jen Psaki saw an opening and took her shot on national television.
But the reporters who actually dealt with Leavitt every single day had a very different story to tell.
Psaki Unloads on Leavitt From Her MS NOW Perch
President Donald Trump announced that Karoline Leavitt would leave her post by the end of August, saying she was departing “so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!” in a Truth Social post.
Leavitt, 28, is the youngest person ever to serve in the role, and she stepped down shortly after returning from maternity leave following the birth of her second child.
That was apparently all the excuse Psaki needed.
Former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki scathingly attacked Leavitt, claiming she faced hardly any tough questions in the briefing room and had no interest in engaging in good faith discussions.
Psaki made her case on MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, where she landed a hosting gig after her time defending the Biden White House. “The press in the room are supposed to push for more access, for more information,” she said. “And there are times when it’s absolutely appropriate for the press secretary to push back. But Karoline Leavitt didn’t want to engage in good faith with those reporters and their tough questions. And so, instead, she did everything she could to reshape that briefing room into her own personal safe space where she rarely had to answer a tough question, hardly ever.”
Psaki wasn’t finished there.
She accused Leavitt of lying repeatedly in her role and said she only served one man: Trump. “It’s been about telling the version of the truth according to the serial liar who sits in the Oval Office. Reporters in the room don’t matter. The American people who rely on the reporting from the reporters in the room [don’t] matter, she’s never seen her job as working for the American people as a public servant,” Psaki said, adding that Leavitt had damaged the job.
Psaki also said Leavitt’s tenure had consequences beyond “just irritating the actual reporters in the room.” “That room is supposed to be where the American people get answers about what their government is doing. And when an administration doesn’t take that responsibility seriously, the American people are the ones who pay the price,” she said.
Psaki also took aim at Leavitt’s “new media” push, calling it a way for Leavitt to pack the room with MAGA sycophants and friendly podcasters.
Rich stuff coming from the woman who turned “I’ll circle back on that” into a national punchline.
Psaki routinely promised to “circle back” to reporters with answers to questions she didn’t have readily available — a habit that became so notorious it defined her entire tenure for many observers.
And Psaki spent two years at the podium while Joe Biden’s mental fitness quietly deteriorated around her. She later pushed back on the idea that anything was being concealed, telling a podcast she “never saw” during her time in the Oval Office the version of Biden that showed up to the June 2024 debate. She said, “I never saw that person, not a single time — and I was in the Oval Office every day — that was on that debate stage.” Whether that counts as tough questioning or convenient blindness is a question she never really answered.
The Reporters Who Were Actually in That Room Told a Different Story
The White House didn’t take long to respond.
Spokesman Davis Ingle told Fox News Digital in a statement, “Jen ‘Circle Back’ Psaki couldn’t hold a candle to Karoline Leavitt.”
Short. Accurate. Devastating.
Tricia McLaughlin, who served as assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, vehemently disagreed with Psaki. “I’ve seen coverage from the New York Times to even Newsweek and CNN that was pretty glowing about Karoline’s professionalism, how quickly she would get back to reporters, how she was actually in the room and had the information firsthand, which is so important for a press secretary to understand the policies, understand the president, where he is on the issues, and then be able to communicate that back to those reporter,” McLaughlin said.
That’s not exactly the portrait of a press secretary hiding from questions.
One veteran White House reporter told Fox News Digital, “Karoline was the best press secretary I’ve ever worked with, and there have been many.” The reporter added that Leavitt’s effectiveness came from spending real time with Trump and understanding his policies. “[Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre], as a counter example, didn’t do either,” the reporter continued. “And while you could say [Jen] Psaki was a policy wonk, her flaw was that she looked at the press with disdain. They were arrogant, whereas Karoline understood how to work with us.”
That last line is worth sitting with for a second. A veteran White House correspondent, not a Trump loyalist, said Psaki looked at the press with disdain. The same Psaki who just spent a full television segment lecturing everyone about how the briefing room is supposed to work.
Leavitt not only fostered a more open atmosphere for multiple types of media in the briefing room, but she also created an environment where her staff was professional and courteous. The 49 permanent seats in the James S Brady Press Briefing Room are allocated to legacy and major news organizations, but standing room only crowds of unseated journalists regularly attended the briefings.
What Psaki’s Attack Actually Reveals
None of this is really about Karoline Leavitt’s press briefing style.
Psaki landed at MS NOW after her Biden White House stint and has spent the years since positioning herself as the authoritative voice on how a proper press secretary should behave. Leavitt leaving gives her a platform to do that one more time, and the timing is no accident. It’s a parting shot dressed up as media criticism.
But the reporters who were actually in that briefing room — including plenty who have no particular affection for the Trump administration — gave Leavitt reviews that directly contradict everything Psaki claimed. White House communications director Steven Cheung put it plainly: “She is one of one. Nobody will ever be able to do what she did.”
And consider what Leavitt walked into. She became Trump’s national press secretary during the 2024 presidential campaign, and during the campaign she gave birth to her first child and returned to work just four days into her maternity leave after the attempt to assassinate Trump. She did the job under conditions that would have leveled most people.
Trump announced that Leavitt will become “one of my top outside advisors” and work with the Republican Party to win the upcoming midterm elections. That’s not the send-off you give someone who dodged questions and damaged the institution.
Psaki built a career telling the public that Joe Biden was sharp, engaged, and fully capable of leading the country. The debate stage in June 2024 answered that question for everyone. She now hosts a television program on the network that used to be MSNBC and uses it to grade other people’s transparency.
The briefing room reporters she claims to speak for already gave their verdict on Leavitt. It was glowing. Psaki might want to circle back on that.
Sources: Fox News Digital; Red State; Lifezette; CNBC; Yahoo News/Fox News Digital (White House correspondents praise Leavitt); The Hill; MS NOW (“The Briefing with Jen Psaki”); AOL/Psaki podcast interview on Biden mental acuity; The Hill (Psaki briefing room frustration, 2021)