WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday named Karoline Leavitt, his campaign press secretary, to serve as his White House press secretary.
Leavitt, 27, currently a spokesperson for Trump's transition, would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. Previously that distinction went to Ronald Ziegler, who was 29 when he took the position in 1969 in Richard Nixon’s administration.
“Karoline Leavitt did a phenomenal job as the National Press Secretary on my Historic Campaign, and I am pleased to announce she will serve as White House Press Secretary,” Trump said in a statement. "Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator. I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American People as we Make America Great Again.”
Leavitt replied in a post on X, formerly Twitter: “Thank you, President Trump, for believing in me. I am humbled and honored. Let's MAGA,” the acronym for “Make America Great Again.”
The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps.
Trump disrupted those norms in his first term, preferring to serve as his own chief spokesperson. While he was president from 2017 to 2021, Trump had four press secretaries but frequently preferred to engage directly with the public, from his rallies, social media posts and his own briefings.
At a news conference this past August, Trump was asked if he’d have regular press briefings in his new administration. He told reporters, “I will give you total access and you’ll have a lot of press briefings and you’ll have, uh, from me.”
When it came to a press secretary, he said: “Probably they’ll do something. If it’s not daily, it’s going to be a lot. You’ll have more than you want.”
Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, is seen as a staunch and camera-ready advocate for Trump who is quick on her feet and delivers aggressive defenses of the Republican in television interviews.
She worked as a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to incumbent Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas.
During Trump’s first term in office, Leavitt worked in the White House press office. She then became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, whom Trump has tapped to serve as his U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump’s first press secretaries, Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, were known for quarreling with reporters. Another, Stephanie Grisham, never held a briefing. Her successor, Kayleigh McEnany, often lectured the news media during her appearances in the White House press briefing room.
FILE - Karoline Leavitt speaks to the news media across the street from Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York, May 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A California man convicted of stabbing to death a gay University of Pennsylvania student in an act of hate was sentenced Friday to life without parole in prison.
Samuel Woodward, 27, was sentenced in a Southern California courtroom at the end of an all-day hearing for the murder of Blaze Bernstein nearly seven years ago. Woodward, who did did not appear in court Friday due to illness, was convicted this year of first-degree murder with an enhancement for a hate crime for killing Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college sophomore.
Dozens of Bernstein 's relatives and friends sat in the courtroom. Many wore T-shirts reading “Blaze it Forward," a slogan for a campaign to commit acts of kindness in his name following his death.
“Let’s be clear: This was a hate crime," Bernstein’s mother, Jeanne Pepper, told the court. “Samuel Woodward ended my son’s life because my son was Jewish and gay.”
She said she takes solace in Woodward never getting out of custody and that while he “rots in prison, we will be here on the outside, celebrating the life of Blaze.”
“Blaze’s memory and spirit will live on in every kind deed done in his honor,” she said.
There was no question about the sentence Woodward would receive because the jury’s verdict carried a life sentence without parole, said Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
Woodward's lawyer, Ken Morrison, asked the court to sentence his client to 28 years to life, saying the judge had some discretion in this regard and that the jurors were not permitted to see all the evidence in the case at trial. Morrison previously said he would appeal the verdict.
Bernstein, who was 19, disappeared in January 2018 after he went out at night with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. After Bernstein missed a dentist appointment the next day, his parents found his glasses, wallet and credit cards in his bedroom and tried to reach him, but he didn’t respond.
Authorities launched an exhaustive search and said Bernstein’s family scoured his social media and saw he had communicated with Woodward on Snapchat. Authorities said Woodward told the family that Bernstein had gone to meet a friend in the park that night and didn’t come back.
Days later Bernstein’s body was found in a shallow grave in the park. He had been repeatedly stabbed in the face and neck.
The question during Woodward's monthslong trial was not whether he killed Bernstein but why and the circumstances under which it happened. Prosecutors said Woodward was affiliated with the violent anti-gay, neo-Nazi extremist group Atomwaffen Division, while Morrison said his client didn't plan to kill anyone or hate Bernstein and faced challenging personal relationships due to a long-undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder.
The case took years to go to trial amid a series of delays and stoked public outcry in Southern California, where residents fanned out in 2018 to try to help authorities find Bernstein after he suddenly went missing.
Woodward testified during his trial and gave slow, delayed replies to lawyers' questions with his long hair partly covering his face.
Bernstein and Woodward attended the same high school, Orange County School of the Arts, and connected via a dating app in the months before the killing. Woodward said he picked up Bernstein, went to a nearby park and repeatedly stabbed Bernstein after trying to grab a cellphone he feared had been used to photograph him.
Morrison, the defense lawyer, said Woodward was confused about his sexuality after growing up in a politically conservative and devout Catholic family where his father openly criticized homosexuality.
But prosecutors told a different story. They said Woodward had repeatedly targeted gay men online by reaching out to them and abruptly breaking off contact, while keeping a hateful, profanity-laced journal of his actions.
Authorities said they also found a black Atomwaffen mask with traces of blood, a folding knife with a bloodied blade and a host of anti-gay, antisemitic and hate group materials in a search of his family's home in Newport Beach, California.
FILE - Orange County Deputy Sheriffs escort Samuel Woodward into Orange County Superior Court for opening statements of his murder trial for the stabbing death of Blaze Bernstein, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Santa Ana, Calif. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via Orange County Register, via AP, File)
FILE - A 2017 photograph of Samuel Woodward is displayed during Assistant Public Defender Ken Morrison's closing arguments in Woodward's murder trial, at Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, Calif., Monday, July 1, 2024. (Leonard Ortiz/The Orange County Register via AP, Pool, File)
FILE - Samuel Woodward testifies in Orange County Superior Court, June 13, 2024, in Santa Ana, Calif. (Leonard Orti/The Orange County Register via AP, Pool, File)
