Karoline Leavitt EXPLODES at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins as she’s grilled on US troops killed by Iran
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lost her cool with CNN‘s Kaitlan Collins as she was grilled over US troops killed in Donald Trump‘s war with Iran.
Collins pressed Leavitt at Wednesday’s White House briefing over comments by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who blasted media outlets for highlighting the deaths of six US service members killed in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait.
Collins asked whether the administration believes the press should avoid prominently covering the deaths of troops in Trump’s war in the Middle East.
Trump’s fiery press secretary replied, ‘That’s not what the secretary said, Kaitlan…and you know it.’
‘You and your network know that you take every single thing this administration says and try to use it to make the president look bad.’
Collins added, ‘I don’t think covering troop deaths is trying to make the president look bad.’
Leavitt shot back, ‘If you’re trying to argue right now that CNN’s overwhelming coverage is not negative of President Trump, I think the American people would tend to disagree, and your ratings would tend to disagree with that as well.’
Hegseth had earlier accused journalists of trying to ‘make the president look bad’ by drawing attention to the troop deaths, which occurred days after Trump launched ‘Operation Epic Fury.’
Collins asked whether the administration believes the press should avoid prominently covering the deaths of troops in Trump’s war in the Middle East
Karoline Leavitt lost her cool with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday at a White House press briefing
Earlier in the day, Pete Hegseth blasted media outlets for highlighting the deaths of six US service members killed in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait
Leavitt, 28, and Collins, 33, have a long history of battling in the press briefing room in front of the cameras.
Collins has covered Trump’s presidency and his three presidential campaigns for nearly a decade.
Her pointed questioning has repeatedly blown up into on-camera confrontations over Trump’s foreign and domestic policy.
In November, she previously grilled Leavitt over Trump’s description of a video, which features six Democratic lawmakers telling members of the military and intelligence community: ‘You can refuse illegal orders.’
At the time, Leavitt told reporters several times that the lawmakers – all veterans – were urging the military to refuse ‘lawful orders.’
Again in December, Collins quizzed Trump’s spokesman on the President’s economic record, while Leavitt claimed that the press corps was going harder on her than when they questioned her predecessors on Joe Biden’s economic record.
Their feuds comes amid the backdrop over her network’s owner, Warner Bros Discovery being sold to Paramount. The President has previously that he would like to see CNN sold as part of the deal.
Despite their adversarial relationship, Leavitt has defended Collins from Saudi authorities during overseas presidential trips.
Six American soldiers are dead because of Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East
When Collins was almost banned from entering a press room in Saudi Arabia after an awkward interaction with Trump in front with the country’s leader, Leavitt came to her rescue.
‘They famously do not like the media there,’ Collins said in an interview with the Absolutely Not Podcast in February.
After the officials left the room, Collins said the, ‘Saudi Royal Guard kind of freaked out because I dared to ask a question’.
‘They’re not used to that there, because they don’t have a free press,’ she explained.
Moments later, she was informed she would not be allowed into the next event because of her actions.
White House staff noticed the confrontation and ran to Leavitt, who stepped in to save Collins.
‘To her credit, she said: “No, Kaitlan is coming in with the rest of the US press.”‘
‘I do think its important in that moment, especially when you’re kind of the US contingent abroad, and we don’t do things like they do in Saudi Arabia,’ Collins added.
Among the most vital pieces of weaponry in the US arsenal is the Thaad antimissile system, which are stationed across the globe to monitor and track pontial incoming missiles
Iran retaliated to the US and Israeli strikes with a barrage of missiles at neighboring nations – some of which broke through air defense systems (seen in Dubai)
This US Navy handout photo released by US Central Command public affairs
Trump’s war with Iran has spiraled into a wider regional conflict after Tehran unleashed retaliatory strikes across the Middle East.
Iranian missiles and drones have targeted U.S. military bases, Israel, and several Gulf nations following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.
Moreover, the US and Israel were preparing to ramp up their bombing missions over Iran on Wednesday as Hegseth vowed ‘we’re just getting started.’
‘Four days in we have only just begun,’ Hegseth said. ‘Now with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound GPS and laser-guided precision gravity bombs of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile.’
Hegseth said the US had opened the campaign with ‘exquisite standoff munitions,’ sophisticated long-range weapons designed to strike from beyond the reach of enemy air defenses.
He said those munitions were no longer needed, pushing back at reports of stretched supplies with the assurance that ‘our stockpile of those remains extremely strong.’
A US submarine sunk an Iranian warship with a torpedo off the coast of Sri Lanka overnight, the first time such an attack has been launched since WWII. Some 148 men are presumed to have drowned.
Hegseth also claimed that the leader of a unit that had attempted to Trump had been ‘hunted down and killed’.
According to the latest Daily Mail/J.L. Partners poll, Trump’s war in the Middle East has caused a huge collapse in his approval ratings.
