White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt sparred with NBC News White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor during Thursday’s briefing after Alcindor claimed that President Donald Trump had presented an “unsubstantiated” video of crosses marking the graves of white farmers in South Africa.

Alcindor repeated several times that the video was “unsubstantiated” and “not true” before asking what the process was for vetting such videos before showing them to world leaders like Trump did during an Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Leavitt, who was having none of it, fired back immediately.

WATCH:

.@PressSec nukes Fake News @Yamiche for LYING about the burial ground of white farmers killed in South Africa pic.twitter.com/BhCTGumnoz

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 22, 2025

“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 that was not true and that the video wasn’t true, and so I wonder, why did the president choose to show that —” Alcindor said.

“What’s not true, Yamiche?” Leavitt interrupted.

“It’s not true that the video was showing a burial site. It is unsubstantiated that’s the case —” Alcindor continued.

“No, it’s — it is true that that video showed the crosses that represent —” Leavitt pushed back.

“It’s not the burial site and that’s what the president claimed —” Alcindor tried again.

“The video showed images of crosses in South Africa about white farmers who have been killed and politically persecuted because of the color of their skin, and those crosses are representing their lives and the fact that they are now dead and their government did nothing about it,” Leavitt said as Alcindor continued to try to talk over her.

“Are you disputing that there’s no —” Leavitt pressed.

“I’m disputing the fact that the video showed what the president claimed it showed, because it did not show that,” Alcindor insisted. “But even more, who at the White House is responsible for —”

“It did show that, it showed white crosses representing people who have perished because of racial persecution,” Leavitt continued.

“— verifying the videos that the president shows, and what protocols are in place when there’s unsubstantiated information being put out for the world leaders —” Alcindor tried one more time.

“Yamiche, what’s unsubstantiated about the video?” Leavitt asked again — and then she noted that The Associated Press had also shared a photo of the same memorial, along with a caption that read, “A view of crosses planted at the White Cross Monument, each one marking a white farmer who has been killed in a farm murder, is seen on a hillside in Ysterberg near Polokwane, South Africa.”

“So it is substantiated, not just by that video and the physical evidence that everybody saw on display in the Oval Office, but also by another outlet in this room, The Associated Press, so you should take it up with them if you believe the claim is unsubstantiated.”

FYI: @Yamiche — this is from the @AP pic.twitter.com/UfzMhbUuDK

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 22, 2025

A deadlocked Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a decision blocking an Oklahoma Catholic school from participating in the state’s charter school program.

The 4-4 decision upholds the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision to ban the Oklahoma City-based St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School from being eligible. It was unclear how the justices voted, but Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case.

The case pitted the Catholic school against Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who sued the school after the state’s charter school board voted to approve St. Isidore’s participation. Drummond argued that allowing religious schools to take part in the program would force taxpayers to fund schools with religious beliefs they did not support.

“The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of my position that we should not allow taxpayer funding of radical Islamic schools here in Oklahoma. I am proud to have fought against this potential cancer in our state, and I will continue upholding the law, protecting our Christian values and defending religious liberty,” Drummond posted on X after the decision from the court was released.

Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the school and charter board argued that Oklahoma discriminated based on religion.

“Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more educational choices, not fewer,” ADF chief legal counsel Jim Campbell said. “While the Supreme Court’s order is disappointing for educational freedom, the 4-4 decision does not set precedent, allowing the court to revisit this issue in the future. The U.S. Supreme Court has been clear that when the government creates programs and invites groups to participate, it can’t single out religious groups for exclusion, and we will continue our work to protect this vital freedom for parents and students.”

A win for St. Isidore would have struck down a provision of the Oklahoma Charter School Act that expressly forbids religious charter schools and could open the door for more religious charter schools across the country.

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In previous decisions, such as Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, and Carson v. Makin, the Supreme Court sided with religious organizations that had been locked out of state programs based on their religious nature. In Carson, the Supreme Court struck down a ban in Maine on vouchers from going toward religious schools.

During oral arguments, several justices on the court’s conservative wing appeared to side with St. Isidore while the liberal wing signaled strong opposition.

“You can’t treat religious people and religious institutions and religious speech as second class in the United States,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said, adding that excluding religious schools “seems like rank discrimination.”