CNN’s Kaitlan Collins sparred with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about the latter’s latest info dump, asking whether it was a play to get back in Trump’s good graces.
Collins fired off her questions in the White House press room days after Gabbard accused former president Barack Obama and other officials of “manufacturing intelligence” to suggest Russia attempted to influence the results of the 2016 election. The CNN reporter asked if the intelligence director made these claims to improve her standing with Trump.
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“You referenced the past intelligence reports and assessments on this, including that 2017 one that was signed off, as Ed noted, by every Republican on the Senate Intelligence Community, including the acting chair of the time, now Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said in a statement that they did not find any evidence of Russian collusion, but what they did find, however, is very troubling and they found irrefutable evidence of Russia meddling,” Collins began.
She continued: “Secondly, what would you say to people who believe that you’re only releasing these documents now to improve your standing with the president after he said that your intelligence assessments were wrong?”
Gabbard tried to correct the way Collins framed her question rather than answering the more biting second statement.
“I want to correct something that you stated, which was citing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report as being one and the same,” Gabbard said. “I think you said the intelligence community. The Senate Intelligence Committee has a very different function than the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The evidence and the intelligence that has been declassified and released is irrefutable.”
She then passed the mic back to Leavitt who was “saying that she would release this to try to boost her standing with the president?”
“Well, the president has publicly undermined her when it came to Iran,” Collins retorted. “He said she was wrong. He told me that she didn’t know what she was talking about. That was on Air Force One, on camera.”
Leavitt refuted Collins’ evidence and said she had a better idea about Trump’s thinking because of the time she spends with him.
“I am with the President of the United States every day,” she said. “He has the utmost confidence in Director Gabbard. He always has. He continues to, and that is true of his entire cabinet, who is all working as one team to deliver on the promises this president made.”
Watch video of the full exchange above.
The post CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Gets Into Heated Press Room Debate With Tulsi Gabbard: ‘The President Has Publicly Undermined Her’ appeared first on TheWrap.
