NBC Reporter Kelly O’Donnell Calls BS on Trump Live During Global Presser

NBC News White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell called BS on President Donald Trump during a global press conference on Wednesday after he accused the press of demeaning the military by reporting on an intelligence leak.

Trump has been raging for days at CNN and others over coverage of a series of surprise U.S. airstrikes on nuclear sites in Iran, claiming that their reporting on the extent of the damage is hurtful to the servicemembers who carried out the strike.

He became particularly enraged at  bombshell reporting from CNN and the NYT about an intelligence assessment shows the strikes may only have set Iran’s nuclear program back by a matter of months, a leak that the FBI is now purportedly investigating.

The president continued to complain about the coverage and the leaks at a press conference at the NATO summit Wednesday, but when he attacked NBC News as “scum” for supposedly “demeaning” the military personnel who carried out the strike, O’Donnell pushed back.

During their exchange, Trump admitted the reporting on the assessment was accurate, and also claimed to recount a real conversation with a pilot who was “devastated” by news reports:

SECRETARY OF STATE PETE HEGSETH: That’s why they came to the table right away because their nuclear capabilities have been set back beyond what they thought were possible because of the courage of a chief who led our troops despite what the fake news wants to say.

KELLY O’DONNELL: But you’re not disputing the report said what it said, even though it was initial.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The report said what it said, and it was fine. It was severe, they think, but they had no idea. They shouldn’t have issued a report until they did, but we’ve gotten the information. I think Pete said it better than you can say it.

And, you know, he should be proud. You, especially you, should be of those pilots, and you shouldn’t be trying to demean them.

KELLY O’DONNELL: No, there’s a difference, sir, between asking about an assessment and demeaning the skill–

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Those pilots flew at great risk, a big chance that they’d never come back home and see their husbands or their wives.

KELLY O’DONNELL: Nobody is questioning the skill of those pilots–.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Let me just tell you, you and NBC, fake news, which is one of the worst. And CNN, New York Times are all bad. They’re sick! There’s something wrong with them.

You know what? You should be praising those people instead of trying to find something. By getting me, by trying to go and get me, you’re hurting those people. They were devastated.

You know, I got a call from Missouri, great state, and I won three times by a lot.

And I got a call that the pilots and the people on the plane were devastated because they were trying to minimize the attack.

And they all said it was hit. But, oh, but we don’t think it was really maybe hit that badly.

And they were devastated. They put their lives on the line, and then they have — and I’m not referring to you, but real scum, real scum, come out and write reports that are as negative as they could possibly be.

It should be the opposite. You should make them heroes and heroines, you should make them really people that they were so devastated when they heard this news. And you know what they said?

One of them, I spoke to one of them said, “Sir, we hit the site. It was perfect. It was dead on!”.

Because they don’t understand fake news because they have a normal life except they have to fly very big, very fast planes. But it’s a shame. You should be making them heroes.

Watch above via CNN.