White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday called out the major broadcast networks, accusing them of giving meager coverage to the killing of a young Chicago woman who was allegedly shot by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
Ms. Leavitt challenged the White House press corps to do better.
“I think her life was worth more than 23 seconds of television,” Ms. Leavitt said, citing what she described as a survey of network coverage of the case of Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old Loyola University student who was shot and killed while walking with friends near her school.
Jose Medina-Medina, a Venezuelan man in the country illegally, has been arrested and charged in connection with her death.
Ms. Leavitt said ABC News devoted only seconds to the Gorman killing in the two days after it broke, while CBS aired two minutes and one second, and NBC gave it just 23 seconds.
“I think the people in this room have a responsibility to report on cases like this,” she told reporters at the daily briefing. “It just exemplifies why the president believes so strongly in deporting illegal aliens from our communities.”
Ms. Leavitt tied the case directly to the ongoing fight over Department of Homeland Security funding on Capitol Hill, calling it “despicable” that Democrats are moving to defund the agency responsible for removing people in the country illegally.
The Gorman killing has drawn a lot of coverage in conservative circles, including Fox News, which has given the case frequent updates since the March 19 shooting.
President Trump and Republicans have blamed Democratic leaders in Illinois for embracing sanctuary policies that opened the door for the “devastating” killing of Ms. Gorman.
Mr. Trump last week said it would be “great” if Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson would welcome the deployment of National Guard troops to the city to help tackle crime.
If they had done so, Mr. Trump said, Ms. Gorman would still be alive.
Mr. Trump and administration officials have had a rocky relationship with the mainstream press, accusing the major news outlets of falling in line behind Democrats by consistently downplaying problems related to illegal immigration and shortchanging the success of the administration in removing violent immigrants.
They also believe the mainstream press has not given them enough credit for the success of the military strikes in Iran.
