Karoline Leavitt Shuts Down NBC Reporter Over Trump’s South Africa Video
“Take it up with the AP.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered a brutal takedown of NBC’s Yamiche Alcindor on Wednesday after the reporter attempted to discredit a video shown by President Trump depicting the genocide of White South African farmers.
During a tense exchange in the press briefing room, Alcindor challenged the legitimacy of the footage—claiming it was “unsubstantiated” and implying that the White House was spreading “misinformation”.
Alcindor opened with the network’s talking points:
“The president showed a video that he said showed more than 1,000 burial sites of White South Africans that he said were murdered. We know that was not true and the video wasn't true, so I wonder why did the president choose to show—”
Before she could finish, Leavitt cut in:
“What’s not true, Yamiche?”
Alcindor attempted to reframe:
“It’s not true that the video was showing a burial site. It is unsubstantiated that that’s the case—”
But Leavitt was ready.
“No, it is true. That video showed crosses in South Africa—crosses representing White farmers who have been killed and politically persecuted because of the color of their skin,” she said firmly.
“Those crosses represent their lives. They’re dead. Their government did nothing about it.”
Alcindor pressed further, questioning whether anyone at the White House had vetted the video before Trump played it in the Oval Office.
“Who at the White House verifies the videos that the president shows?”
Leavitt responded with receipts.
“What’s unsubstantiated about the video? It shows crosses that represent the dead bodies of people racially persecuted by their government.”
She then cited a mainstream media outlet as confirmation.
“The Associated Press has a picture of that very monument. Their caption says: ‘Each cross marks a White farmer, who has been killed in a farm murder.’”
“So yes—it’s substantiated. Not just by the video in the Oval Office, but by the AP.”
Then she ended it with a hammer:
“You should take it up with them. That’s a ridiculous line of questioning.”
White crosses were not burial sites, but elements of a symbolic memorial erected for a 2020 protest against the murder of a white couple on their farm by robbers, and the murders of other white farmers in South Africa. The crosses were removed some time ago. Trumps images of dead white farmers came from Reuters footage in Congo
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trumps-image-of-dead-white-farmers-came-from-reuters-footage-in-congo-not-south-africa/ar-AA1FiHe2?ocid=BingNewsSerp
https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/05/23/white-genocide-trump-south-africa/
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-showed-videos-crosses-context-south-africa-genocide/story?id=122056100
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/white-crosses-shown-by-trump-not-graves-says-man-who-erected-them/ar-AA1FhuEm