White House’s Leavitt Demands Elite Media End Dangerous Rhetoric After WHCD Attack

Curtis Houck
April 27th, 2026 5:43 PM

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered impassioned call Monday afternoon for the liberal, elite media and their elected allies to cease their years of hateful, incendiary rhetoric against President Trump and his tens of millions of supporters that sadly resulted at Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD) in an attempt on his life and many in his cabinet.

In perhaps her strongest press briefing opening statement of her tenure, Leavitt began by making clear “Saturday was supposed to be a joyful evening celebrating free speech and the First Amendment with all of you members of the press,” but was derailed “by a crazed anti-Trump individual who traveled across the country to assassinate the President and as many administration officials as possible.”

Next, she noted that “while we are blessed to have a fearless President, we should not live in a country where such constant fear of political violence permeates our society every single day.”

She correctly stated the timeless American ideal that “[w]e can and we should have fierce disagreement in this country” amongst each other, but they “must remain peaceful” as “debating, peaceful protesting, and voting are how we need to settle disagreements, not bullets.”

That said, she acknowledged recently history (click “expand”): 

Nobody in recent years has faced more bullets and more violence than President Trump. This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators, yes, by elected members of the Democrat Party and even some in the media. This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump, day after day after day for 11 years, has helped legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment.

Those who constantly falsely label and slander the President as a fascist, as a threat to democracy, and compare him to Hitler to score political points, are fueling this kind of violence. The left wing cult of hatred against the president and all of those who support him and work for him has gotten multiple people hurt and killed. And it almost did so again this weekend.

Leavitt shrewdly asked the assembled reporters to consider if the suspect’s leftist manifesto reads any “different...from this almost assassin than what you read on social media and hear in various forums every single day” and, “if you’re being honest,” the answer is “[m]uch of the manifesto of the would be assassin is indistinguishable from the words that we hear daily from so many.”

As an example, she cited comments Thursday from ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel claiming to joke First Lady Melania Trump has the “glow of an expectant widow” as the “kind of...completely deranged” rhetoric that Americans “are consumer...night after night after night.”

“The deranged lies and smears against the President, his family, his supporters have led crazy people to believe crazy things, and they are inspired to commit violence because of those words. It has to stop,” she continued before ending her opening remarks with a call to action for Congress to end its shutdown of Homeland Security, leaving key government workers without pay.

Sitting in the “new media seat,” One America News White House correspondent Daniel Baldwin asked Leavitt to share more with “the millions of Americans who wake up here today nervous, uneasy about the safety of the President at events like this and safety of their cabinet members”

Leavitt replied in part everyone “understand[s] their fears and their worries,” but Trump “continues to have trust in the United States Secret Service...who are doing their jobs and performing their honor, their — their duties honorably.”

Baldwin also wanted to know from Leavitt why she chose to hold Monday’s briefing even though she had said on Friday she’d be leaving on maternity leave to have her second child this week:

Fox’s Aishah Hasnie was next and spoke with the needed moral clarity most of the other journalists have decided to lack in both-sidesing or excusing dangerous rhetoric toward the President and his supporters:

Just from the rhetoric, you mentioned the First Lady and Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy Kimmel’s comments were, Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow. And he said this days before the shooting. But there does seem to be a normalization of rhetoric about assassinating this particular President. How can this administration try to put an end to this?

Leavitt reiterated Trump’s call for Americans “to recommit ourselves as a country to toning down the rhetoric and to unifying” and it especially applies to those who have “a voice and a platform across this country...and when you have mentally disturbed individuals across the country who are listening to this crazed rhetoric about the President, day after day after day, it inspires them to do crazy things.”

Leavitt then slammed the elite media’s enabling of this rhetoric that exists far beyond the Bluesky Brigade:

[I]t’s not just the media. It is the entire Democrat Party has made their pitch to voters across the country that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, that he is a fascist, and that they compare him to Hitler. I mean, these are despicable statements that the American people have been consuming for years, and so many mentally perturbed individuals are led to believe these words are truth and then are inspired to act on it.”

Leavitt backed the proverbial truck up and unloaded a whole host of examples (click “expand”):

I have a whole host of examples that we can share with you after. It is pages and pages of major Democrat Party elected officials saying such as Rep. Hakeem Jeffries just this April this month said, “we are in an era of maximum warfare everywhere, all the time.” Governor Josh Shapiro said “heads need to roll within the administration.” Senator Alex Padilla said “people are dying because of fear and terror caused by the Trump administration.” Senator Elizabeth Warren: “President Trump is making the country look like a fascist state.” Senator Adam Schiff saying President Trump ‘using a dictator playbook.’ Senator Ed Markey calling President Trump “a dictator,” saying that “this administration’s actions are authoritarianism on steroids.” Governor JB Pritzker: “Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, disruptions. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.

You have Rep. Pressley saying, “We’ll see you in the streets.” Rep. LaMonica McIver, a Democrat representative on Capitol Hill: “We will not take this from shit from Donald Trump. He thinks he’s a dictator. We are at war.” These are Democrat elected officials calling for war against the President of the United States and his supporters. I could go on and on. But again, when you have people in positions of power that are saying things like this every single day for years, you are inspiring violence by people who are already mentally ill. And that’s what we’ve seen against this President for far too long.

Hasnie had a follow-up about where to go from here and thwarting such rhetoric. Leavitt largely demurred to the Justice Department:

Later on in the Q&A, Hasnie’s Fox colleague Edward Lawrence questioned whether Saturday’s attack — which would be at least the third Trump assassination attempt — lead the President to reconsider what “type of events” he “goes to.” Leavitt made clear the President wouldn’t be deterred in meeting Americans where they are:

A few reporters later, Leavitt ended on a hopeful note in response to a question from EWTN’s Owen Jensen about what she believes Trump’s “message”would be to those people who — who experienced that terrible trauma and maybe are still fearful today”:

To see the relevant transcript from the April 27 briefing, click here.

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