Incoming White House press secretary: ‘We’re not shy of the hostile media’

Karoline Leavitt, President-elect Trump’s pick to be White House press secretary, said she welcomes a potentially combative relationship with the Washington press corps.

“They have pushed lies and hoaxes about him for eight years,” Leavitt said of mainstream news outlets during an interview on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program. “They consistently take his words out of context. This election taught us a lot of things, but one of those things is that the American people are no longer buying the lies from the legacy media.”

Asked if she was prepared to take hostile questions from reporters at leading news organizations such as The New York Times, NBC and other outlets, Leavitt said “we hope there will be decorum, certainly, and we will try to instill that.”

“But we’re not shy of the hostile media,” she said. “We have dealt with that now in the campaign for the last year. Nobody does it better than President Trump. And, again, it’s our goal to get our message, his message, his ‘America First’ message, and the historic policies that he will be delivering upon, in the most effective way to the American people.”

Leavitt said the White House press team may bring “different voices into the press briefing room” and change rules for press briefings.

“We are looking at those options. And, ultimately, it’s about serving the American people and getting President Trump’s message across to them,” she added.

Trump, who regularly ridicules mainstream media outlets, earlier this week vowed to be “open” and “available” to news organizations covering his second administration.

“If not treated fairly, however, that will end,” the president-elect said. “The media is very important to the long-term success of the United States of America.”