Jake Tapper Defends CNN From Trump Spox Meltdown — Smacks Down Spox’s ‘Propaganda’ Charge

CNN anchor Jake Tapper defended his colleagues and his network from a meltdown by President Donald Trump’s  press secretary and an attack from a State Department spokesperson accusing CNN of “propaganda.”

Trump White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt melted down on Kaitlan Collins this week over reporting on war casualties, and State Department official Dylan Johnson accused CNN of “doing straight up pro-Iran regime propaganda.”

On Friday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Tapper defended Collins, Fred Pleitgen, and photojournalist Claudio Otto and slammed Trump’s team for attacking CNN:

JAKE TAPPER: Of course, part of acknowledging the seriousness of taking a country into war is recognizing the immense importance of telling the truth to the American people.

But instead, we are seeing this administration lob baseless smears and accusations against anyone who dares to question them. CNN’s Fred Pleitgen along with his photojournalist Claudio Otto are bravely reporting from inside Iran.

We’re going to hear from them soon and about how they’re able to report from there. CNN is the first U.S. network reporting from inside the country since the start of the war. These are two incredibly courageous, honest journalists taking a big risk to bring the world reports from inside a war zone to show the world what it looks like. They’re not advocating for the Iranian government. They’re just showing the world what Iran looks like.

But the Trump administration apparently finds they’re reporting something to be attacked. Dylan Johnson, who’s, I suppose an assistant secretary for the State Department, he wrote on X, quote, CNN, appears to now be doing straight up pro-Iran regime propaganda because someone gave this guy a coffee. Let’s play the clip that the State Department is using to make this claim of pro-Iran propaganda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Taking a quick break for a coffee. Along the way, we’ve been driving for several hours. There’s a couple of things that we’ve noticed. Number one is that first of all the shops are open. All the shops are really well stocked, even with fresh things like for instance, fruits and vegetables. Coffee obviously also available as well.

And then also the gas stations. There’s no long lines as gas stations. Fuel seems readily available and you just don’t see any sort of degree of panic anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: We’ve seen this movie before, haven’t we? As long as we’re in a film motif, a reporter says what they’re seeing on the ground, noting the availability of goods in this one journalism and accused of being pro Iran, pro enemy for just bringing journalism to the public.

We also saw this week White House press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lash out at CNN’s Karoline Collins for — Kaitlan Collins, rather for asking about a rather notable statement from the secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, about the deaths of six American service members that the media was covering. Hegseth said, quote, 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, unquote.

Of course, the media for decades has covered prominently the death of service members in war. Kaitlin asked the White House about it. Here’s some of that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: 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. KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I

don’t think covering troop deaths is trying to make —

LEAVITT: If you’re trying to —

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Attacking the press for asking questions about why the U.S. is involved in a war in the Middle East. We’ve seen it before. Trump, by the way, got elected in 2016 in no small part by telling voters that he’d always been a critic of the Iraq war, which is questionable. But in any case, we did see more than 20 years ago what it’s like when too many people in the news media cower in the face of White House intimidation and refrain from asking questions. How’d that work out?

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.

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