In the aftermath of President Donald Trump calling a reporter “piggy,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested to journalists Thursday that they should be grateful he looks them in the eye and insults them.
“I think the president being frank and open and honest to your faces rather than hiding behind your backs is, frankly, a lot more respectful than what you saw in the last administration, where you had a president who lied to your faces and didn’t speak to you for weeks,” she said.
Leavitt was responding to a reporter who asked during Thursday’s press briefing what Trump meant when he told Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey to be “quiet, piggy” onboard Air Force One. The incident took place Friday but wasn’t publicized until this week.
Trump, Leavitt said, is simply a “very frank and honest” man. She referred to his frankness three more times in about a minute.
“It’s one of the many reasons the American people reelected this president, because of his frankness,” she claimed.
