Karoline Leavitt tears into 'hysterical' New York Times reporter

 

Donald Trump's press chief Karoline Leavitt tore into a New York Times reporter for trying to draw parallels between her boss and Vladimir Putin. 

'Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin's reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access,' New York Times journalist Peter Baker wrote on X Tuesday.

The 27-year-old Leavitt responded to Baker's X post with a clown emoji. 

'Give me a break, Peter,' she wrote. 'Moments after you tweeted this, the President invited journalists into the Oval and took questions for nearly an hour.

'Your hysterical reaction to our long overdue and much needed change to an outdated organization is precisely why we made it.'

Then Leavitt made sure to hit the Times reporter with a personal jab.

'Gone are the days where left-wing stenographers posing as journalists, such as yourself, dictate who gets to ask what,' she wrote. 

Baker's barb came following Leavitt's announcement that the government will now choose which reporters can access the White House briefing room and travel with the president. 

Since the early 1900s the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) has decided which publications get presidential face time. 

The WHCA is comprised of many mainstream outlets, and it has elections among its members to rule on access for journalists covering the president. 

But that all went out the window on Tuesday, and now the Trump administration will decide who gets to most closely cover the commander in chief, Leavitt said.

'A group of DC-based journalists, the White House Correspondents' Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the President of the United States,' Leavitt announced. 'Not anymore.'

'Today, I was proud to announce that we are giving the power back to the people. Moving forward, the ‘White House Press Pool,’ will be determined by the White House Press Team,' she continued, adding legacy outlets will still be allowed to participate. 

Baker, the NYT's top White House reporter, lashed out at the administration again in another post, saying its clear they are  sending a message that those who ask questions that Trump doesn't like will be barred from covering the president. 

Typically the pool is comprised of a reporter from each of the three wire services - the Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg - a television crew and correspondent, a print reporter, a radio reporter and five still photographers, which also includes the AP.

There are 13 press seats available on Air Force One - and media outlets pay for their flights on board the presidential aircraft. 

Nobody took the seats of the AP reporter and photographer who were booted from Trump's Presidents' Day weekend trip to Mar-a-Lago and Miami over the 'Gulf of America' drama.