Kaitlan Collins Confronts Tulsi Gabbard to Her Face With Trump Criticisms In Brutal Briefing Exchange

CNN Chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins confronted Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to her face with President Donald Trump’s criticisms and asked if a new intel dump is just a stunt to improve her “standing” with Trump.

Gabbard was the opening act for White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at Wednesday’s White House press briefing, during which she rolled out a document dump meant to support Trump’s baseless and discredited accusation of “treason” against former President Barack Obama and his top officials.

But Collins cut right to the chase when she asked about Trump’s repeated public rebukes, then stuck to her guns when Leavitt stepped in to object:

KAITLAN COLLINS: Thank you, Karoline. Two questions for Director Gabbard, just on this. Director Gabbard, 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.

One, are you saying that he’s wrong in that statement that he made then?

And 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?

DNI TULSI GABBARD: First, I want to correct something that you stated, which was citing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report as being one and the same. 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. I’m going to let Caroline speak to Secretary Rubio.

PRESS SECRETARY KAROLINE LEAVITT: I’ll speak to both questions first on Secretary Rubio. He put out a statement in 2020 following that Senate Intelligence Committee report and he said what they found is troubling.

We found irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling, which the director of national intelligence just confirmed for all of you that Russia was trying to sow distrust and chaos.

But what’s the outrage in this that Secretary Rubia did not say at the time the Democrats were saying at the time is the fact that the intelligence community was concocting this narrative that the president colluded with the Russians, that the president’s son was holding secret meetings with the Russian, all of these lies that were never true.

And he also said at that time, we discovered deeply troubling actions taken by the FBI under Comey, particularly their acceptance and willingness to rely on the Steele dossier without verifying its methodology or sourcing the Steele dossiers that many outlets in this room ran as the gospel truth. And it was cooked up and paid for by the Clinton campaign.

As for your second question, Kaitlan, I think– who is saying that, that she would release this to try to boost her standing with the president?

KAITLAN COLLINS: Who has said that? Well, the president has publicly undermined her when it came to Iran. 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.

PRESS SECRETARY KAROLINE LEAVITT: The only people who are suggesting that the director of national intelligence would release evidence to try to boost her standing with the president are the people in this room who constantly try to sow distrust and chaos amongst the president’s cabinet. And it is not working.

I am, I will just answer your question directly. I am with the President of the United States every day. 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.

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