CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Torpedoes Pro-Trump Analyst’s Bizarre Claim About Ex-Prez Praising Trump

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins repeatedly torpedoed pro-Trump analyst David Urban’s suggestion that former President Bill Clinton’s representatives haven’t denied President Donald Trump’s claim about a Democratic ex-president praising him for starting a war with Iran.

During a press event on Monday, Trump claimed that an unidentified former president from a party with “Trump derangement syndrome” told him “I wish I did what you did.”

On Monday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins brought in Urban and fellow CNN analyst Paul Begala to talk about the exchange after every living ex-president denied speaking to Trump through spokespersons.

Collins had to remind Urban of those denials repeatedly as he tried to suggest that Begala’s responses constituted a non-denial:

COLLINS: Paul, there was something the president said, not once, but twice today, about a conversation he had with a former U.S. president. Obviously, there’s only a handful that are living that he says praised–

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: I think it’s Paul’s former boss.

COLLINS: –in Iran.

Well, let’s listen to what the president says, how he described that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER DOOCY, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, FOX NEWS CHANNEL: You’ve said twice today that you talked to another former President about the Iran strikes. Was it George W. Bush?

TRUMP: No.

DOOCY: Was it Bill Clinton?

TRUMP: I don’t want to say.

That person said, I wish I did it. OK? But I don’t want to get into who.

DOOCY: OK.

TRUMP: I don’t want to get him into trouble. Maybe, hey, you know what–

DOOCY: I have a guess.

TRUMP: I think you probably know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Immediately after that, we were all texting people in the worlds of Bill Clinton and everyone else. But it seemed to be Bill Clinton who said there have not been any conversations recently between Trump and Clinton.

I mean, Paul, first off, do you know of any? And two, what did you make of that?

BEGALA: Yes, I haven’t been in touch with the president — former President Clinton, so I don’t know. But his office has said that that’s never happened.

URBAN: Well that’s not a denial, Kaitlan.

BEGALA: No, no. His office said it didn’t happen.

Donald Trump — President Trump has a rich fantasy life, and we wish him well. But I wish he would call his predecessors, any of them, either party. This is a guy — while JD Vance is trying to have it both ways. And Urban is wrong, as usual, he can’t have it both ways.

Donald Trump has attacked seven countries already. Seven. Here they are in alphabetical order: Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, Nigeria, Venezuela and Yemen. Seven countries. One of his predecessors going to say to him, Donald, don’t do any of that unless it’s the absolute last option. Any good president knows you don’t go to war the way Bush did on a lie, and you don’t go to war unless it’s the very last resort. And it’s not in any of those seven cases.

COLLINS: Paul Begala and–

URBAN: Apparently, Paul’s former boss said, a good job. So, I’m all for it.

COLLINS: But, I mean, Clinton’s people have said that they’ve not spoken.

BEGALA: We did not talk to him though.

COLLINS: Right.

BEGALA: It’s — this didn’t happen.

COLLINS: I mean, David, they said they haven’t spoken.

BEGALA: Yes, I think the makeup has kind of affected his brains, or something, I don’t know, Trump is making himself–

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: Begala didn’t deny it, Kaitlan. Begala didn’t deny it.

BEGALA: No, I just haven’t talked to President Clinton in several weeks. I don’t know.

COLLINS: Clinton’s people say that they didn’t.

BEGALA: Yes.

COLLINS: So do Obama’s and Bush’s and Biden’s.

On Thursday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins

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