Fresh off her first White House press conference on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gave her first broadcast network interview since officially taking office. The 27-year-old force to be reckoned with spoke with ABC’s “Good Morning America” co-host and former NFL player Michael Strahan.
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Spoiler: Leavitt promptly dismantled Strahan, who proved to be no match.
Before we continue, here’s how political cartoonist A.F. Bronco nailed the Tuesday presser.
EXACTLY. pic.twitter.com/7JjZiJRoBH
— MikesRight (@RealLibSmacker) January 30, 2025
Anyway, Strahan’s line of questioning began in actual journalistic fashion:
We want to start with the administration’s offer to buy — what — a mass buyout to federal employees out there. How many do you hope will take it? And by what percentage does the president want to downsize the federal workforce?
Leavitt responded in kind:
“[We] want to make our federal government more efficient and productive and it is a fact that only six percent of the federal workforce here in Washington, D.C. actually shows up to the office,” which “is completely unacceptable.”
“[I]f federal bureaucrats don’t like that, well, guess what? They can resign from their positions and this administration is offering them eight months of pay. It will be paid through September just to simply resign from their positions. If five percent to 10 percent of the federal workforce resigns, it will save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.”
Simple enough, bureaucrats. If you don’t like it, take the money and run.
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Hilarious moment from @PressSec @KarolineLeavitt’s interview on ABC’s @GMA….
Michael Strahan: “But is there any concern we risk losing people with years of experience like doctors and — and let’s say scientists?”
Leavitt: “Well, most doctors who work in actual hospitals and… pic.twitter.com/TLNPhs0thO
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 29, 2025
As NewsBusters suggested, Leavitt should have asked Strahan if he was ever able to do his job as an NFL player from home and see what would have happened. I would have paid to see his response.
Strahan then waded into the “funding part.” Bad move, Michael.
Well, let’s — let’s get to the funding part. The White House putting a freeze on federal assistance programs. A federal judge has put the freeze temporarily on hold, saying the government itself doesn’t have a full scope of the programs that are going to be impacted. So, what’s your response to that?
It was game on for Leavitt:
Well, as I addressed in my first press briefing yesterday; this is a temporary pause on federal assistance and grants, so that the Office of Management and Budget here in the Executive Office of the President can review all federal assistance that is going out the door. Again, President Trump promised the American people he would be a good steward of their tax dollars. And what we cannot do is fund programs that run contrary to the executive orders and actions that this President has already taken, so there will no be — federal funding for DEI programs.
There will be no more federal funding for the Green New Deal, which is a — an order from the previous administration that President Trump has rescinded. It would make no sense for American taxpayers to pay for policies that this administration is no longer implementing. So, that’s all this is — a temporary pause federal assistance and grants so we can conduct a review of all of the money that’s going out the door.
And, as I repeatedly stated yesterday, individual assistance such as Medicare payments, social Security benefits, welfare, food stamps and Medicaid assistance will not be impacted by this federal pause, so the American people should not worry if they are receiving individual assistance from the federal government, they will continue to receive that.
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Game over? Not quite. Strahan took one more shot — and failed, miserably.
Well, the Medicaid system was disrupted across the country yesterday. Online portals went down in response to this freeze action. Should that not have happened? And is that a sign of a chaotic rollout?
Needless to say, Levitt swatted away Strahan’s shot like a pesky fly.
No, absolutely not. And I would like to address that. We were made aware of that immediately and we amended the problem immediately. The Medicaid program is back up and running online.
And that was that. Did Strahan and ABC News learn anything? Absolutely not.
ALSO READ:
Karoline Leavitt Puts the Kibosh on Reporter’s Illegal Immigration Strawman
No doubt the fun will continue.
The Bottom Line
The left-wing media will continue its antagonistic nonsense against President Trump and his administration, thankfully including Karoline Leavitt. And it will cluelessly do so at its own peril.
