White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered an angry attack on The Atlantic on Wednesday that left critics quickly drawing comparisons to Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, the infamous former Iraqi official better known by his nickname "Baghdad Bob."
In her daily press briefing, Leavitt accused The Atlantic of running a "misinformation" campaign against the administration after it correctly reported that administration officials had posted war plans in a Signal group chat in the presence of the magazine's editor-in-chief.
This statement, as well as her statement that Trump's second term had just wrapped up the most successful two months of any administration ever, elicited significant mockery all across the BlueSky social media platform.
Justin Baragona, a reporter at The Independent, got the ball rolling by observing "strong Baghdad Bob energy coming from Karoline Leavitt at the top of today's hearing."
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Other ridicule of Leavitt's performance quickly followed.
"Listening to Karoline Leavitt reminds me of when Kurt Vonnegut said our national motto should be 'In Nonsense is Strength,'" joked screenwriter Michael Markowitz.
"There is definitely a misinformation campaign, just not the one she is describing," quipped The Atlantic's Anne Applebaum.
The Washington Post's Philip Bump took apart Leavitt's "misinformation campaign" claim against The Atlantic by sarcastically writing, "This verbatim transcript of a conversation between administration officials is misinformation."
Political scientist Seth Masket made a similar observation about Leavitt's claims by noting that she "confirms the contents of the Signal messages and also calls it a misinformation campaign."
Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson cast doubt on the political wisdom of Leavitt's tirade.
"Karoline Leavitt is trying to substitute shrieking for an apology to America's men and women in uniform who were at risk because of Signalgate," he opined. "It's not working."
