Reporters Get Hit with a Knockout Punch When Karoline Leavitt Lets Them Have It on COVID [WATCH]

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took direct aim at the media on Friday for dismissing President Donald Trump’s early claims that COVID-19 originated from a lab in Wuhan, China.

Her comments follow statements from former CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who confirmed that intelligence now supports the lab leak theory—one that was once ridiculed as a “conspiracy theory.”

During a press briefing, Leavitt criticized both the media and the Biden administration for suppressing information on the virus’s origins.

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She pointed out that when Trump initially suggested in 2020 that COVID-19 “very well may have” come from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, mainstream media outlets were quick to dismiss it.

“Many members in this very room mocked him for that, said he was spewing conspiracy theories. He was not,” Leavitt stated.

“We now know that to be the confirmable truth. It took many years for it to come out, but the president was right in this instance again.”

She also addressed the Biden administration’s silence on the latest findings.

“Kudos to John Ratcliffe for revealing that truth and that fact to the American people,” Leavitt said.

“Many years too late, the Biden administration had a chance to let the American people know the truth about that, and for some reason, they chose not to.”

Leavitt concluded her remarks by reinforcing the White House’s stance: “The President was right.”

Leavitt’s comments come as the CIA and other intelligence agencies reassess the origins of COVID-19, now acknowledging that a lab leak is “more likely” than the previously promoted theory of natural transmission.

Ratcliffe, who served as Director of National Intelligence under Trump, has been vocal about the intelligence community’s failure to publicly acknowledge what he described as an obvious conclusion.

“I know from conversations with the president about where his priorities are and where he wants things to be as it concerns foreign threats to America’s national security posture, and it starts with China,” Ratcliffe told Breitbart this week.

“One of the things that I’ve talked about a lot is addressing the threat from China on a number of fronts, and that goes back to why a million Americans died and why the Central Intelligence Agency has been sitting on the sidelines for five years in not making an assessment about the origins of COVID,” he added.

Ratcliffe said he intends to push for greater transparency on the issue.

“That’s a day-one thing for me,” he continued.

“I’ve been on record, as you know, in saying I think our intelligence, our science, and our common sense all really dictate that the origins of COVID was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But the CIA has not made that assessment or at least not made that assessment publicly. So I’m going to focus on that and look at the intelligence and make sure that the public is aware that the agency is going to get off the sidelines.”

EXCLUSIVE — DIRECTOR JOHN RATCLIFFE tells me the CIA will under his leadership actually produce a real assessment as to whether COVID came from a lab leak at WUHAN INSTITUTE OF VIROLOGY — something the CIA has not done yet. pic.twitter.com/5Pdcpbz6wS

— Matthew Boyle (@mboyle1) January 24, 2025

For years, Democrats, the media, and Big Tech actively worked to dismiss and suppress discussions on the possibility that COVID-19 originated from a lab.

Social media platforms labeled such claims as “misinformation” and removed posts suggesting a lab leak, while media outlets insisted the virus had a natural origin.

Despite mounting evidence, whistleblower accounts, and intelligence findings pointing to a lab leak, the Biden administration has remained largely silent on the issue.

With Ratcliffe and other intelligence officials now confirming the likelihood of a lab leak, the narrative pushed by the media and political establishment has unraveled.

Leavitt’s statements reflect the administration’s effort to set the record straight and highlight the accuracy of Trump’s early claims—claims that were widely dismissed but are now proving to be true.

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