Karoline Leavitt Absolutely Loses It Over Kaitlan Collins’ Question | EUROtoday

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins throughout a press briefing on Wednesday after Collins challenged her over the most recent assault on the media by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Earlier within the day, Hegseth accused the “fake news” media of attempting to “make the president look bad” by protecting the deaths of American service members killed within the U.S.-Israeli conflict on Iran. Six have died thus far.

Collins requested Leavitt, “Is it the position of this administration that the press should not prominently cover the deaths of U.S. service members?”

Leavitt responded by attacking Collins, her community CNN and the media extra broadly.

No, it’s the place of this administration that the press on this room and the press throughout the nation ought to precisely report on the success of Operation Epic Fury and the harm it’s doing to the rogue Iranian regime that has threatened the lives of each single American on this room. If the Iranian regime had their alternative, they might kill each single particular person on this room. And so we are able to all be very grateful that now we have an administration and that now we have women and men in our armed forces who’re prepared to sacrifice their very own lives for the remainder of us on this room and for each American throughout the nation and for each troop that’s primarily based within the Middle East.

Collins pushed again, quoting Hegseth’s personal remarks.

Leavitt responded sharply: “That’s not what the secretary said, Kaitlan, and that’s not what the secretary meant, and you know it. You know you are being disingenuous.”

The back-and-forth continued, with Collins noting that the media covers “the deaths of U.S. service members under every president.”

The press does solely wish to make the president look dangerous. That’s a reality. Listen to me, particularly you and particularly CNN. And the secretary of protection cares deeply about our warfighters and our women and men in uniform. He travels all throughout this nation to satisfy with them, to attach with them and your community has rarely most likely reported on that. You additionally had the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Chairman Kaine, who’s a courageous patriot, standing alongside the secretary on the Pentagon this morning, once more expressing his condolences to those households. And I simply advised you that the president of the United States will probably be attending their dignified switch, so please, so please…

Collins replied that protecting the dignified switch of the troops — which Trump will attend — is “not making the president look bad” however merely “showcasing that.”

Leavitt then accused Collins and CNN of attempting to make use of “every single thing this administration says” to “make the president look bad,” calling it “an objectable fact.”

Collins pushed again once more.

“I don’t think covering troop deaths is trying to make the president look bad,” she stated.

Leavitt pivoted as soon as extra, saying: “If you’re trying to argue right now that CNN’s overwhelming coverage is not negative of President Donald Trump, I think the American people would tend to disagree, and your ratings would tend to disagree with that, as well.”

Later, on Jake Tapper’s present “The Lead,” Collins reiterated that “covering the deaths of these service members has nothing to do with President Trump himself personally, just as it didn’t with other presidents.”

Tapper stated he was shocked by Hegseth’s and Leavitt’s remarks.