White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attacked CNN reporter Natasha Bertrand in response to her reporting on leaked intelligence relating to U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last weekend.
“This reporter wrote a lie from the intelligence community to seek a narrative she wanted to prove,” Leavitt said of Bertrand, calling her out by name during a briefing with reporters on Thursday. “This is a reporter who has been used by people who dislike Donald Trump in this government to push fake and false narratives.”
Leavitt’s criticism of the reporter came a day after President Trump called for her firing and accused her of “attempting to destroy our Patriot Pilots by making them look bad.”
CNN issued a statement on Wednesday defending Bertrand and saying it “does not believe it is reasonable to criticize CNN reporters for accurately reporting the existence of the assessment and accurately characterizing its findings, which are in the public interest.”
Jake Tapper, a top anchor at the network, also defended Bertrand.
“President Trump and his administration are going after shooting the messengers in an increasingly ugly way,” he said.
The White House has sought discredit the leaked intelligence, which suggested the Saturday strikes only set Iran’s nuclear program back by a few months.
