The recent No Kings protests, a movement calling for the removal of authoritarian leaders in government, added a substantial amount of pressure to the Republican Party. Nearly 7 million people participated in the protest, and it spread across multiple countries worldwide.
In response, President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated video of himself deploying excrement onto protestors. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later claimed that the Democratic Party is made up of terrorists and criminals.
Similarly, Leavitt wrote in a post on in response to the government shutdown, “The Democrat Party's elected officials absolutely cater to pro-Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals.”
She went on to address the Democratic Party, saying it does not serve the interests of the American people and to “... Open up the government and stop simping to try to get your radical left-wing base to like you.”
Leavitt’s calling Democrats “violent criminals” and “pro-Hamas terrorists" is a mechanism to instill fear and create an aggressive divide between Democrats and Republicans. This approach simply draws attention away from what is actually happening: Trump’s administration is under fire.
Furthermore, Leavitt consistently attempts to create distractions during times of controversy.
Amid the construction of the White House’s new ballroom and the deconstruction of the East Wing, there have been a variety of issues. On Thursday, a reporter asked during a press briefing, “Can the President tear down anything he wants without oversight, can he demolish this building, or say the Jefferson memorial?”
In response, Leavitt called out previous presidents who had various construction projects during their respective terms, which shifted the narrative of the question. These were presidents who simply added to the White House; they did not remove historical elements of it.
Shifting the narrative or avoiding questions altogether is a consistent theme for Leavitt.
In a recent interaction over text message between senior White House correspondent S.V. Dáte of The Huffington Post and Leavitt, regarding the recent cancellation of a meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin, Leavitt avoided yet another question.
Dáte started the interaction by asking whose idea it was to have the meeting in Budapest, due to the previous negative relations Putin had with Hungary. The Huffington Post asked, “Who picked Budapest?” Leavitt's response was “Your mom did,” avoiding the question immaturely.
Leavitt later wrote that Dáte’s colleagues didn't take him seriously and ridiculed his reporting, still avoiding the question. Leavitt’s response was entirely unprofessional, and using this sort of language in the government destroys its credibility altogether.
Normalizing this uneducated behavior will only perpetuate similar instances in the future. Leavitt’s avoidant nature shows the extent she will go to protect a failing administration, and her language may be a procedure to hide what the administration is actually doing.
For example, think of elections as a fair game of musical chairs. Each of the chairs is placed at an equal distance from each individual participating in the game and provides an equal opportunity to all. However, if the chairs were placed by specific players rather than the previous formation, the game would be unfair.
Now apply that same logic to Republicans' recent attempt to gerrymander the upcoming midterm election. Gerrymandering is a procedure of drawing electoral district boundaries in order to benefit a specific political party, essentially scooting the figurative chair closer to them and further from their opponents.
Redrawing the districts allows Republicans to spread a concentrated amount of voters in a specific district across multiple ones, which is occurring in various states, such as North Carolina, Texas and even Ohio.
If Republicans truly believed that the United States would vote in favor of their party, they would not blatantly attempt to legally rig an election.
The gerrymandering mixed with Leavitt’s consistent, aggressive language makes it apparent that the Trump administration is failing. Understanding that her rhetoric is a technique to create a further divide between an already divided nation is essential to maintain a stable democracy. A democracy in which people can speak freely of their political ideologies without running the risk of being slandered, attacked or killed.
Adam Gerber is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Adam about their column? Email them at ag967424@ohio.edu
