CNN’s Daniel Dale Rips Trump Spox Karoline Leavitt’s First Briefing: ‘Classic Spinmeister’

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale panned Trump White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s performance at her first briefing, casting her as evasive and a “spinmeister.”

Seconds after Leavitt’s first White House press briefing — during which President Donald Trump’s spending freeze was a dominant topic — CNN News Central anchor Brianna Keilar tossed to Dale for an evaluation of what he’d just seen.

Dale accused Leavitt of using a “classic spinmeister tactic” by insisting she had already answered a question when she actually had not:

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, that is the first White House press briefing of the new Trump administration. Karoline Leavitt there.

And we do want to bring in — we have our Daniel Dale, Brian Stelter and Jeff Zeleny with us.

But I do want to go to you first, Daniel Dale, to talk about a very big issue that is going to affect a lot of Americans. And that is the recent pause by the White House on these federal grants and loans.

Look, Karoline Leavitt tried to say repeatedly that she had answered this question, that direct assistance like Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, if you’re getting that direct assistance or that direct check from the government, it’s not going to be affected.

But there’s a lot of groups that you would expect, the nonprofits, that you would expect will asked about, Meals on Wheels, Head Start. She wouldn’t answer that question.

And there’s also so much other federal funding that goes to nonprofits, that goes to local and state entities. So not directly to individuals, but to entities that provide that essential aid than to individuals that’s held up.

What did you think about what you heard?

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, I think, it’s a — it’s a classic spinmeister tactic saying I answered that when you haven’t answered it and apparently can’t answer it right away.

There’s considerable uncertainty around the country among nonprofits of various kinds, organizations of various kinds, and the people who get help from those organizations. So they may not get direct individual payments straight from the

federal government but their lives, their — their situations, that they’re living situations, in some cases, their food and transportation situations are very much dependent on the aid that comes through an intermediary organization.

And we still do not have clarity on what is happening with the funding that usually goes to those entities.

Watch above via CNN News Central.