Donald Trump’s incoming press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, deleted posts praising then-Vice President Mike Pence for certifying Trump’s loss in 2020.
Leavitt, then 23 and fresh out of Trump’s White House press office, retweeted a video of Pence calling Jan. 6 “a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol,” CNN reported Monday.
“Love him or hate him, he kept the wheels of democracy moving & pushed forward to certify his own loss,” she wrote. “Thank you, Mr. Vice President. It was an honor to serve you.”
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Leavitt also retweeted a video of the Capitol police officer luring rioters away from the Senate floor, captioning the post, “a hero.”
She went on to unsuccessfully run for Congress in New Hampshire, with election denialism as a key part of her platform.
“I do believe that if we were to audit all 50 states in this country, there is absolutely no way we would find Joe Biden legitimately won 81 million votes,” Leavitt said in 2022. “I fundamentally do not believe that, and I will tell you the majority of voters on the Republican side do not believe that either. We feel as though this election was taken away from us.”
A review of Leavitt’s account by CNN found that the Jan. 6 posts were the only two removed from her page between November 2020 and January 2021. She did leave up a post saying she was “utterly heartbroken for our country” the day after the attacks.
When asked for comment, Trump’s team did not address the deleted posts.
“Karoline was completely correct in saying there were irregularities with the 2020 election and any cases of fraud should be investigated in order to protect and preserve the sanctity of our Democracy,” Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, told the Daily Beast. “She will make a wonderful Press Secretary championing the policies and agenda of President Trump, and there is nobody better who can articulate that to the public.”
