White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins sparred over War Secretary Pete Hegseth‘s comments against press coverage of the Iran conflict and the six U.S. service members who have died since the operation started.
The spat occurred during a Wednesday afternoon press briefing when Collins questioned Leavitt about Hegseth’s previous comments seeming to suggest the press should not prominently cover the deaths of U.S. service members.
“It’s the position of this administration that the press in this room and the press across the country should accurately report on the success of Operation Epic Fury and the damage it is doing to the rogue Iranian regime that has threatened the lives of every single American in this room,” Leavitt responded. “If the Iranian regime had their choice, they would kill every single person in this room.”
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The two women then argued over the media bias of CNN after Collins pointed out that Hegseth had complained about front-page coverage of the service members’ deaths at a press briefing on Wednesday morning.
“That’s not what the secretary meant. And you know it, you know you’re being disingenuous,” Leavitt shot back.
Collins began to quote Hegseth verbatim: “When a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front page news. I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad.”
“The press does only want to make the president look bad,” Leavitt responded. “Listen to me, especially you, and especially CNN and the secretary of defense cares deeply about our war fighters and our men and women in uniform.”
“He travels all across this country to meet with them, to connect with them, and your network has hardly ever probably reported on that,” she continued.
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President Donald Trump is expected to attend the dignified transfer for the fallen service members, which Collins noted the press would cover.
“We expect you to cover that as you should, Kaitlan, but you and your network know that you take every single thing this administration says, and tries to use it to make the president look bad. That is an objectable fact,” Leavitt said.