Former White House press secretary Dana Perino commended the performance of 27-year-old Karoline Leavitt, who briefed reporters for the first time on Tuesday.
Leavitt, the youngest White House press secretary in history, will return to the podium Friday afternoon.
Perino was Republican President George W. Bush’s fourth press secretary – the second woman to ever hold the job.
Now a Fox News political commentator, Perino predicted on Fox Thursday that Leavitt will ‘be great.’
‘She’s young,’ Perino said. ‘But she’s wise beyond her years.’
One thing that stood out to Perino was the fact that Leavitt ‘has access to the president.’
‘Which is something someone didn’t have – and that would be the person in the last four years until towards the end when they would let her have access,’ Perino said, a reference to former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Jean-Pierre didn’t join President Joe Biden’s team until May 2020 – after he had wrapped up the Democratic primary – while a number of key advisers had worked with him for decades.
That showed when she took over from White House press secretary Jen Psaki in May 2022.
She had also spent her career as a political strategist – something Jean-Pierre was barred from talking about from the White House podium.
Jean-Pierre often cited the Hatch Act when asked political quetions by reporters.
Her lack of knowledge about foreign policy also created an interesting dynamic during the back-half of the Biden administration, with National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby often sharing the briefings with Jean-Pierre.
‘And also Karine Jean-Pierre would say that Joe Biden was running circles behind the scenes at the White House,’ Perino commented. ‘Absolutely wasn’t true.’
‘And if you want to trace directly how all of the Democrats lost you can go right abck to the biggest lie was that one,’ the former press secretary said. ‘And they perpetuated it from there.’
A number of reports followed 82-year-old Biden out the door about the diminished condition he was in and how White House staff tried to hide it.
Leavitt also already made one eyebrow-raising claim during her opening briefing – that the U.S. was poised to send $50 million to Gaza for the purchase of condoms.
A White House official walked back that statement to The Independent to explain that the $50 million was more broadly healthcare-related.
Nevertheless, President Donald Trump repeated it the next day. And claimed the condoms would be used to make ‘bombs.’
During her opening briefing, Leavitt also opened up two briefing room seats – usually reserved for the press secretary’s staff – to ‘new media’ reporters.
She challenged the press not to lie – while vowing to tell the truth to the American people.
‘We know for a fact that there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in the country about this president, about his family and we will not accept that,’ she stated. ‘We will call you out when we feel your reporting is wrong or there is misinformation about this White House.’
Leavitt also made clear that the White House believed that all immigrants in the country illegally are criminals – and pushed that Biden, not Trump, was responsible for the high price of eggs.
‘As far as the egg shortage, what’s also contributing to that is that the Biden administration and the Department of Agriculture directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens – which has led to a lack of chicken supply in this country, therefore a lack of egg supply, which is leading to this shortage,’ Leavitt said.