Karoline Leavitt/X
President-elect Donald Trump’s soon-to-be White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, is coming under scrutiny for her evolving stance on the 2020 presidential election fraud claims and January 6 Capitol riots — after she deleted social media posts praising then-Vice President Mike Pence and a Capitol Police officer.
According to a report from CNN’s KFile, Leavitt worked in the Trump White House press office at the time and appeared to oppose the baseless claim that the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election was stolen, a position she would reverse on by 2022.
KFile writer Andrew Kaczynski reported Monday that shortly after the Capitol riot, Leavitt shared a now-deleted retweet commending Pence for certifying the 2020 election.
The tweet by Senator Tim Scott’s (R-SC) communications staffer Ken Farnaso praised Pence as “a steady hand through the chaos that ensued at our Capitol yesterday” and for having “kept the wheels of democracy moving” by pushing “forward to certify his own loss.” The tweet also featured a clip of Pence’s somber acknowledgment of the events as “a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.”
Another deleted post by Leavitt herself hailed Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman as “a hero” in redirecting rioters away from lawmakers, an act widely credited with saving lives.
By 2022, however, Leavitt embraced a starkly different narrative, running unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in New Hampshire as a staunch election denier. During her campaign, she told on OAN, “President Trump won in 2020,” and insisted, “there is absolutely no way we would find Joe Biden legitimately won 81 million votes.”
Leavitt’s change of stance reflects a broader Republican trend of initially distancing from Trump after January 6, only to later adopt his claims as his influence over the party solidified. Since her campaign loss, she has become a key figure in Trump’s orbit, serving as the national press secretary for his 2024 campaign and now his press secretary pick. Trump hailed Leavitt’s appointment as “smart,” “tough,” and “effective.”
Speaking with CNN, Trump communications director Steven Cheung dismissed the network’s investigation over her deleted posts and praised Leavitt for “championing the policies and agenda of President Trump.”
