White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace and other liberal media figures following President Trump’s address.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called out MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace by name on Wednesday after the left-wing network host criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to feature a young cancer survivor in his address to Congress.
DJ Daniel, a 13-year-old cancer survivor, received a standing ovation from a majority of the joint session crowd, although some Democrats were seen on camera sitting at various times while Trump was speaking about the teenager.
Trump explained that Daniel and his dad, who was in the crowd and held his son up at one point during the president’s remarks, had been on a “quest” to make his dream of becoming a police officer come true and explained that he has been made an honorary member of local police departments.
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“I am asking our new Secret Service director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States,” Trump announced during the speech.
But the gesture did not sit well with Wallace, who attempted to draw a connection between Daniel and the January 6 Capitol riot.
“I hope he has a long life as a law enforcement officer,” she said. “But I hope he never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump’s supporters, and if he does, I hope he isn’t one of the six who loses his life to suicide, and I hope he isn’t one who has to testify against the people who carried out acts of seditious conspiracy and then lived to see Donald Trump pardon those people.”
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During Wednesday’s White House press briefing, Leavitt called Democrats the “party of insanity and hate” before pivoting her attention to members of the liberal media.
“Last night, MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace disgustingly looped in a 13-year-old boy with brain cancer into an attack on the president over January 6,” she said.
“It’s sad and frankly pathetic that Democrats and liberals in the legacy media continue to allow their hatred for the president to override their love for our country,” Leavitt later added.
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Wallace was not the only network figure to chastise Trump for inviting Daniel to the chamber.
“For the record, and this is disgusting, the president made a spectacle out of praising a young man who thus far survived pediatric cancer, as if the president had something to do with that,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said Tuesday evening in response to Trump’s address.
“This was in the midst of him praising [the Department of Government Efficiency],” she continued. “The DOGE cuts, among other things, have cut off funding for ongoing research into pediatric cancer.”
Fox News’ Jeffrey Clark contributed to this report.
