ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA – Trump Campaign National press secretary Karoline Leavitt declared Friday that the Republican Party “is the party of women” at the National Federation of Republican Women’s (NFRW) Spring 2024 Board Meeting.
While delivering the keynote address, Leavitt called out President Joe Biden, Democrats, and their “stenographers” in the mainstream media, who so often claim the Democrat Party to be women’s champion.
“I’m so sick of hearing all of them say, ‘The Democrat party is the party of women.’ That is false. The Grand Old Party, the Republican Party, is the party of women,” Leavitt said, drawing thunderous applause from a packed conference room of attendees at the NFRW’s luncheon.
Breitbart News was the only media outlet present for her speech. After her remarks, Leavitt sat down for an exclusive interview with Breitbart News to discuss the contours of Trump’s plan to win women voters in the 2024 election.
The NFRW, founded in 1938, is the nation’s largest grassroots Republican women’s organization, representing over 60,000 members, including Leavitt, across the United States and in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
Specifically, Leavitt pointed to Biden and the Democrats’ economic and border policies as being harmful to women and all Americans, while also spotlighting the hypocrisy of the left’s advocacy for men to be able to compete in women’s sports during her speech.
“How can they say such a thing when Joe Biden and the Democrats have implemented policies that are hurting hardworking women, mothers, and families across this country?” Leavitt said on the economic front. “It’s costing nearly $20,000 more for the average American family to get by and have the same quality of life – not even get ahead – just have the same quality of life” they had under the Trump administration.
Notably, the buying power of $1.00 in January 2021, the last month former President Donald Trump was in office, had the same buying power as $1.19 in February 2024, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. This illustrates the ravages of inflation on the American consumer under Biden’s tenure.
“Joe Biden’s out-of-control spending has created the worst inflation crisis in a generation,” Leavitt said.
Regarding the border, Leavitt declared that Biden’s “policies are hurting women across this country” and pointed to the February 22 murder of 22-year-old University of Georgia student Laken Riley, whose killer authorities have identified as an illegal immigrant.
“[Biden] has allowed a mass invasion of more than ten million illegal criminals into our country, many of whom have raped, sexually assaulted, and, in the tragic case of Laken Riley in the great state of Georgia, killed women across this country,” Leavitt said, reckoning the number of migrants who entered the country illegally is actually higher than that.
Notably, Biden mispronounced Riley’s first name as “Lincoln” at the State of the Union address last Thursday. The next day, he apologized to MSNBC for referring to her alleged murderer as “illegal,” asserting he should have used the term “undocumented.”
U.S. House of Representatives
Leavitt said Riley’s horrific fate “is every woman’s worst nightmare,” “and that nightmare has sadly become a reality in Joe Biden’s America.”
And while Biden botched the slain 22-year-old’s name and apologized for using “illegal” rhetoric to describe her alleged murderer, Trump personally met with Riley’s grieving parents last week, as Leavitt pointed out.
Trump hugs Laken Riley’s grieving parents as Biden apologizes to her kiIIer.
I have never seen a clearer contrast. pic.twitter.com/39WcD9zQte
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 10, 2024
She also underscored the hypocrisy of Democrats’ advocating for men in women’s sports while claiming the mantle as “the party of women. “
“And for goodness sake, Joe Biden and the Democrats cannot say they are the party of women when they support men competing in women’s athletics,” Leavitt said to raucous applause, and she vowed Trump “will fight on day one to protect women’s athletics in America,” noting he has promised to slash federal funding for “any public school or institution that allows biological males competing in female sports.”
The Trump 2024 national spokeswoman also vividly contrasted Biden’s America with what a second Trump term would foster regarding the border and economy.
“Rest assured, I come here with a hopeful message from the President, and as he said in Georgia last weekend, the heinous monster who killed ‘Lincoln Riley’ is an illegal,” Leavitt said. “He should have never been here in the first place, and when President Trump returns to the White House, illegal criminals will not be released into our communities to commit more harm. They will be deported.”
“President Trump will protect all of us –men and women – by making America safe and strong again,” Leavitt added. “He will implement a pro-growth, low-tax, America-first economic agenda that will uplift all Americans, regardless of race, religion or creed. He will once again lead the free world with a peace-through-strength foreign policy strategy that emboldens our allies but weakens our adversaries.”
After a standing ovation at the culmination of her speech and meeting with the great women of the NFRW, Leavitt caught up with Breitbart News for an exclusive interview, during which she elaborated on her statement that the “Republican Party is the party of women” and detailed Trump’s plan to win women voters.
“We are the party of uplifting working moms and families through pro-growth, low-tax, and a less-regulation economic agenda that will put more money back into the pockets of hardworking women across this country,” Leavitt told Breitbart News. “Joe Biden’s economic policies – his tax and spend, his using the heavy hand of the federal government – are robbing hardworking women and families across this country of thousands of dollars every single year.”
“The Republican Party is also the party of women because we want to protect women’s rights – and that includes women’s athletics and women’s safe spaces, such as locker rooms and bathrooms,” the Trump campaign’s national press secretary continued. “Joe Biden is controlled by the far left Democrats in this country, who support men competing in female athletics; President Trump has made it very clear that that will end when he is elected to a second term.”
“And thirdly – I know I talked about this in my speech – Joe Biden and the Democrats cannot say that they are pro-women when they are allowing illegal criminals, rapists, and murderers to invade our southern border and assault women across this country, as we have seen in the case of Laken Riley, and in countless other cases in every single state across this country,” she added.
Her comments come days after a 26-year-old migrant was arrested in Massachusetts, which borders Leavitt’s home state of New Hampshire, for allegedly raping a disabled 15-year-old migrant who was being housed at the same hotel in a town called Rockland, as CBS News noted.
Leavitt emphasized to Breitbart News that Biden “has the executive authority right now to shut down the border” but “refuses” to take action.
She asserted the president and his allies on the left “want these open borders because it’s about power and control; they need more votes.”
“They don’t care about protecting the safety and the lives of women across this country,” she told Breitbart News. “President Trump is right again to call out this new wave of migrant crime that we’re seeing in communities in suburban America, urban America, even rural America.”
NFRW President Julie Harris praised Leavitt while speaking exclusively with Breitbart News following the keynote address.
“We felt like Karoline represented women well, not just Republican women but American women. She spoke about the issues that are key,” Harris said. “You talk about Republican women issues; those issues are really American issues, but it’s all in how you present them to women – it’s in the messaging, what appeals to women.”
“She talked about safety, security, the economy – those are things that are very important to women,” Harris added. “They don’t want to have to be looking over the shoulder to see if they’re safe while they’re out jogging near the university. Those are spaces that should be safe for women to jog.”
During her conversation with Breitbart News, Leavitt discussed the importance of grassroots groups like NFRW, whose women volunteer on average 14 million hours in a given election cycle, Breitbart News has learned. The organization says it is already outpacing that average for the 2024 cycle.
“Organizations like this one are the heartbeat of the Republican Party,” Leavitt explained. “These women are on the ground in their respective communities, and we are so excited now that President Trump is the nominee of the party that we can fully partner and engage with outside organizations like the National Federation of Republican Women to get President Trump’s message out there and to turn out the vote on November 5.”
Breitbart News asked Harris how much of an advantage it gives Republicans and the NFRW to have the party united, now, in March, behind a presumptive nominee in Trump versus months down the line when presidential nominees typically emerge from large primary fields.
“It is fantastic and we are seeing unity come in the party,” she said. “To have our candidate this early has been tremendous in us being able to pull all of our women together. They’re ready to get to work.”
