• 2 days ago
Karoline Leavitt holds a press gaggle outside the White House.

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Transcript
00:00A couple of questions, Caroline, can you give us a preview of the president's Justice Department
00:16speech?
00:17Sure.
00:18I'd be happy to.
00:19As you know, the president will be heading there later this afternoon.
00:21The attorney general will be there as well as the FBI director, Kash Patel.
00:25And the president is going to give a speech focused on restoring law and order to our
00:30country.
00:31In the last four years under the Biden administration, we unfortunately saw a Department of Justice
00:35that was weaponized against Americans for their political ideologies.
00:39It was not focused on fighting violent crime and restoring law and order and public safety.
00:45So the president will be talking about his intention to restore those very basic American
00:49values to our country.
00:51And he will also be there with fentanyl families and angel moms who have lost their children
00:57at the hands of illegal migrant criminals who the previous administration allowed into
01:01our country.
01:02And also, of course, to illegal Chinese fentanyl, which, as you all know, the president feels
01:06very strongly about cracking down on drug cartels, drug trafficking and human trafficking
01:10as well.
01:11So you'll hear about all that later this afternoon.
01:13I don't want to get ahead of the president any more than that.
01:15Caroline, do you think the president will talk to President Putin during the day?
01:19I don't have anything on the president's schedule, but that could obviously always
01:23change as you saw his truth social this morning.
01:25He is putting pressure on President Putin and the Russians to do the right thing.
01:30Yesterday was a productive day for the United States of America and for the world in terms
01:35of peace.
01:36We have never been this close to peace.
01:38You saw the NATO Secretary General in the Oval Office yesterday.
01:41You were there with us, who said that only because of President Trump are we here on
01:45the verge of brokering a peace deal.
01:48Did the president talk to President Trump last night on the phone?
01:52President?
01:53Did President Trump talk to President Putin last night on the phone?
01:57He did not.
01:58No.
01:59Steve Woodcock spoke to him yesterday in Moscow, as you know.
02:00Has the president spoken with the new incoming Canadian prime minister at all this week?
02:05I know earlier this week you said they hadn't yet spoken, but given everything that's going
02:08on between the United States and Canada, have they spoken yet?
02:10To my knowledge, they have not spoken.
02:12When they do, we can provide a readout of that call.
02:14Do you have any updates on the New York governor meeting?
02:17Yeah, I believe it's still ongoing, or it wrapped when I came out here, but the governor
02:23was here to talk about the pipeline that President Trump is very determined to get passed in
02:28the New England and New York area, and so that's as far as I know about the conversation,
02:34but I can get an update on it.
02:36Caroline, district court rulings about all the fired probationary workers use the same
02:40language here just now that was in the statement about fighting back against that ruling.
02:43Do you mean appealing or something else, and does the administration plan to comply
02:47with those orders in the meantime?
02:49Fighting back by appealing, fighting back by using the full weight of the White House
02:54counsel's office and our lawyers at the federal government who believe that this injunction
02:58is entirely unconstitutional, and it is for anybody who has a basic understanding of the
03:02law.
03:03You cannot have a low-level district court judge filing an injunction to usurp the executive
03:09authority of the president of the United States.
03:11That is completely absurd, and as the executive of the executive branch, the president has
03:16the ability to fire or hire, and you have these lower-level judges who are trying to
03:22block this president's agenda.
03:24It's very clear, and as I just cited, I was appalled by the statistic when I saw it this
03:28morning.
03:29In three, or in one month, in February, there have been 15 injunctions of this administration
03:36in our agenda.
03:37In three years under the Biden administration, there were 14 injunctions, so it's very clear
03:43that there are judicial activists throughout our judicial branch who are trying to block
03:47this president's executive authority.
03:49We are going to fight back, and as anyone who saw President Trump and his legal team
03:53fighting back, they know how to do it.
03:55He was indicted nearly 200 times, and he's in the Oval Office now because all of the
04:00indictments, all of these injunctions have always been unconstitutional and unfair.
04:04They are led by partisan activists who are trying to usurp the will of this president,
04:08and we're not going to stand for it.
04:10Thanks for your time.

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