Donald Trump’s pick for White House press secretary praised then-Vice President Mike Pence in social media posts made after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — then deleted the posts when she ran unsuccessfully for Congress on an election denial platform.
Karoline Leavitt erased two posts including one praising Pence for certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 win, according to CNN. It was accompanied by a video of Pence calling the attack “a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.”
Another post praised a Capitol Hill cop as “a hero” for his attempts to stop the attack.
But the posts disappeared as she ran for a New Hampshire congressional seat in 2022.
“I’m the only candidate in this race to say that President Trump won in 2020, and I will work my hardest every single day to make sure we get to the bottom of it,” Leavitt said in an interview posted to X.
In another interview, she said, “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 report stated, “CNN reviewed Leavitt’s tweets and found those two were among the only ones removed of those she sent between November 2020 and January 2021. Most of Leavitt’s tweets from this period focused on the success of Operation Warp Speed in delivering a vaccine for Covid-19 in record time. Another included false claims of voter fraud in Georgia during the 2020 election.
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“Leavitt did leave up a tweet saying she was “heartbroken” over the Capitol riot and thanking Capitol police for keeping her and others safe. Leavitt did not explain why this was kept up but others were removed when asked by CNN.”
Leavitt was the Trump campaign’s national press secretary and has been picked as his White House spokesperson.
“Leavitt’s shift from praising those who defended the democratic process on January 6 to embracing election denialism reflects a broader trend among Republicans who initially distanced themselves from Trump after the riot, only to rally behind him later as his grip on the party tightened,” CNN reported.
She didn’t comment to CNN. Trump’s transition team didn’t address the tweets, but said in a statement, “Karoline was completely correct in saying there were irregularities with the 2020 election and any cases of fraud should be investigated in order to protect and preserve the sanctity of our Democracy.
“She will make a wonderful Press Secretary championing the policies and agenda of President Trump, and there is nobody better who can articulate that to the public.”
