


Trump White House counselor Alina Habba on Wednesday tried to defend press secretary Karoline Leavitt but got personal ― and racist ― in an unprovoked attack on Joe Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. (Watch the video below.)
Fox News host Laura Ingraham showed Habba a clip of Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar criticizing Leavitt’s press briefing about the federal funding freeze on “The View.”
“Karoline Leavitt is overqualified, brilliant and was well-versed and ready,” Habba said. “She answered every question. She didn’t need a thick binder, Whoopi, sorry, unlike our last press secretary who was put in their for ... DEI reasons.”
Besides launching a false, racially charged insult at Jean-Pierre ― a Columbia grad who logged extensive experience in the Biden and Barack Obama administrations and their campaigns ― Habba forgot an important detail: Trump’s last White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, also used a thick binder. So that burn fizzled in a hurry.
Leavitt has faced tough early reviews. She was accused of being evasive about the targets of Trump’s attempted freeze on federal grants and loans, and claimed to have answered a question about it when she hadn’t.
“Classic spinmeister,” CNN’s Daniel Dale said.
The Trump administration rescinded a memo Wednesday from the Office of Management and Budget to pause federal assistance on many fronts but Leavitt insisted an executive order on a funding freeze remained in effect.