Karoline Leavitt Calls It 'Scary' That Networks Can Choose Not to Air Donald Trump's Speeches Live

Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she doesn't think President Donald Trump isn't covered enough — just days after Trump banned multiple media outlets from entering the White House.

The 29-year-old sat with Sean Hannity to discuss her post-White House life when the topic of the media's coverage of the president inspired her to complain.

Leavitt's biggest gripe was that media outlets sometimes opted to not carry Trump's speeches.

“For the president of the United States to address the nation, and for networks to make the editorial decisions themselves that they will not cover it for their audience, that’s scary stuff,” she said.

She said during her time in the White House, she demanded answers from networks.

“I’ve gotten on the phone with the leadership of all of those stations and said, ‘Why aren’t you taking the president’s remarks live? Let your audience decide how they feel about this.' 'Oh well, we have more important things to cover here today.' Okay, good to know,” Leavitt recalled.

Trump delivers speeches often, but they tend to be rambling rehashings of the same stories and talking points he makes every speech. Typically, networks will cut in if he promises to say something newsworthy or is talking about current events rather than holding a rally, but Trump is well known to talk for well over an hour without making a major announcement.

Sometimes, networks are careful about Trump's speeches for legal reasons. For example, Fox News has been gun shy about Trump making speeches related to stolen 2020 election conspiracy theories after they were sued for amplifying his unproven claims after the 2020 election.

When Trump made a speech claiming there was new evidence suggesting Chinese interference in the 2020 election, Fox aired it but immediately added a disclaimer saying they could not verify the accuracy of his remarks. They didn't cover the speech beyond airing it.

The timing of Leavitt's complaint is remarkable considering that Trump is actively kicking networks out of the White House.

After Trump banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico, the three outlets sued the president on First Amendment grounds. Furthermore, CBS, Fox and ABC stood with NBC and CNN and suspended their television coverage of Trump in solidarity of his threat on the free press.

This resulted in a farcical moment where Trump was filmed giving remarks by Newsmax but there no audio, as audio duties typically are handled by one of the boycotting networks.

Later in her talk with Hannity, Leavitt teased a future career in conservative television.

“Almost from the beginning, I said I can see, you know, ‘The Briefing with Karoline Leavitt’ coming up on the Fox News Channel,” she said, referring to former Press Secretary Jen Psaki's show on MS NOW.

Leavitt made the shock decision to leave the White House in August despite being one of Trump's favored staffers. She said she did so to spend more time with her children — after Trump reportedly hounded her to return to the White House when she went on maternity leave.