Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was corrected on live TV today after ranting about a judge’s democratic ties, when a reporter informed her that the particular judge Republicans are angry at was actually appointed by George W. Bush

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was left looking sour after a reporter corrected one of her statements (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, looked sour after a reporter corrected her claims that the judge who blocked the Alien Enemies Act was a “democratic activist.”

The reporter stopped her for a second after her comments, telling her, “He [the judge] was originally appointed by George W. Bush and elevated by Obama. Feel I should clear that up.”

Leavitt immediately went on the defense and tried to shoot back, as she’s no stranger to being called out at her pulpit for misinformation, but the damage was done as reporters sitting in the press room quietly smiled at the reporter’s comment.

Leavitt had been railing against U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, whom Donald Trump chided early this morning on Truth Social, writing, “If a President doesn’t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our Country because a Radical Left Lunatic Judge wants to assume the role of President, then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!”

Judge Boasberg ruled against Donald Trump’s deportation plans and is now facing calls for his impeachment from unhappy Republicans.

According to the AP, Boasberg was appointed to the federal bench in 2011 by President Barack Obama but was named a decade earlier to a seat on the D.C. Superior Court by President George W. Bush.

On Saturday night, Boasberg ordered the administration not to deport anyone in its custody through the newly-invoked Alien Enemies Act, which has only been used three times before in U.S. history, all during congressionally declared wars. Trump issued a proclamation that the law was newly in effect due to what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Told there were planes in the air headed to El Salvador, which has agreed to house deported migrants in a notorious prison, Boasberg said Saturday evening that he and the government needed to move fast.

According to the filing, two planes that had taken off from Texas’ detention facility when the hearing started more than an hour earlier were in the air at that point, and they apparently continued to El Salvador. A third plane apparently took off after the hearing and Boasberg’s written order was formally published at 7:26 p.m. Eastern time. Kambli said that plane held no one deported under the Alien Enemies Act.

El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, on Sunday morning tweeted, “Oopsie…too late” above an article referencing Boasberg’s order and announced that more than 200 deportees had arrived in his country. The White House communications director, Steven Cheung, reposted Bukele’s post with an admiring GIF.

The federal judge on Monday questioned whether the Trump administration ignored his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador, a possible violation of the decision he’d issued minutes before.

Judge Boasberg was incredulous over the administration’s contentions that his verbal directions did not count, that only his written order needed to be followed, that it couldn’t apply to flights that had left the U.S. and that the administration could not answer his questions about the deportations due to national security issues.

Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli contended that only Boasberg’s short written order, issued about 45 minutes after he made the verbal demand, counted. It did not contain any demands to reverse planes, and Kambli added that it was too late to redirect two planes that had left the U.S. by that time.