President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who will become the youngest one to hold this position, praised then-vice president Mike Pence for certifying the 2020 election after the January 6, 2021 riot at Capitol. But then she deleted the posts and did not comment directly on what her thought and afterthought was — when CNN reached out to her.
The CNN report said one of the posts included a video of Mike Pence denouncing the riot and calling it a dark day in history. The other post praised Pence and Leavitt wrote “A hero” sharing that.
In the days following the Capitol riots, Leavitt sided with Mike Pence. “Love him or hate him, he kept the wheels of democracy moving & pushed forward to certify his own loss. Thank you, Mr. Vice President,” one of the posts shared by her read.
But then Leavitt went on to pose as an election denier and worked for New York Rep. Elise Stefanik. Leavitt then ran unsuccessfully for a New Hampshire congressional seat in 2022. She maintained her position that she believed that Trump won the election in 2020 and the victory was denied to him by Joe Biden.
“I do believe that if we were to audit all 50 states in this country, there is absolutely no way we would find Joe Biden legitimately won 81 million votes,” she said. “I fundamentally do not believe that, and I will tell you the majority of voters on the Republican side do not believe that either. We feel as though this election was taken away from us.”
The CNN report said it reviewed Leavitt’s tweets and found those two were among the only ones removed of those she sent between November 2020 and January 2021.
Trump called Karoline smart, tough and effective as he announced her nomination as the press secretary while he is expected to shake up the traditional White House press briefing.