Leavitt Blasts NYT Reporter for Hypocrisy After Puff Piece on Biden’s Health, Hit Job on Trump

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt torched The New York Times and reporter Katie Rogers for promoting a narrative that the current President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, is cognitively slipping — all while the same reporter once defended Joe Biden’s infamous Air Force One fall as nothing more than “wind.”

The controversy erupted after Rogers and fellow Times writer Dylan Freedman published a Tuesday article titled “Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities Of Aging in Office.” The piece framed the 79-year-old president as increasingly tired and less visible than during his first term, a storyline eagerly boosted by legacy media outlets hostile toward Trump.

Leavitt dismissed the report as dishonest and politically motivated, noting that Rogers is the same journalist who rushed to Biden’s defense in March 2021 after the then-president fell multiple times while boarding Air Force One.

“I will point out one fake news story over the weekend before I let you all go from The New York Times that took about one third of the president’s daily calendar and his daily schedule and said that he’s doing less than he did in his first term or he might not be fit for the job. That is unequivocally false and it’s deeply unfortunate that this story was written by the same outlet and the same reporter who wrote this. ‘Biden is doing 100 percent fine after tripping while boarding Air Force One,’” Leavitt said.

Her rebuke didn’t stop there.

“Oh, same outlet, same reporter who wrote that President Trump is not fit for the job. Are you kidding me? You all see him almost every single day. He is the most accessible president in history,” she continued.

Rogers’ earlier article — headlined “Biden ‘Doing 100 Percent Fine’ After Tripping While Boarding Air Force One” — leaned heavily on then–deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who insisted Biden simply fell because of strong wind.

“It’s pretty windy outside,” Jean-Pierre claimed. “It’s very windy. I almost fell coming up the steps myself. He is doing 100 percent fine.”

Footage from the incident showed Biden stumbling, falling forward, regaining his footing, and then collapsing onto his knee — an event the Times aggressively downplayed at the time.

WATCH:

Leavitt told reporters that any outlet that dismissed Biden’s widely broadcast stumbles has no credibility attacking President Trump’s health.

“Again, same reporter, same outlet who wrote falsely over the weekend that President Trump is not fit for the job. I can assure you he absolutely is. You all see that with your own eyes on a daily basis and the president’s physician has now given you all three detailed reports on the state of the president’s health,” she said.

The recent Times story accused Trump of holding fewer public events than during his first term and even claimed he appeared to momentarily doze off during a Nov. 6 briefing on weight-loss drugs. It also implied that Trump has been withholding medical details from the public — a claim the White House rejected outright.

Leavitt countered that the president’s most recent MRI, conducted in October, showed he is in excellent health. Earlier this year, following a comprehensive physical, Trump’s physician affirmed that the president “exhibits cognitive and physical health.”

Trump himself confirmed the MRI results in October, calling them flawless.

“I did, I got an MRI — it was perfect,” Trump said. “We had an MRI, and the machine, you know, the whole thing, and it was perfect.”

The examination was performed at Walter Reed on Oct. 10 as part of an ongoing series of routine evaluations, building on the full physical completed in April.