Trump Spox Leavitt Gets Snippy With CBS Reporter Over ‘Do Not Rely On US’ Evac Message — That Was Changed After ABC Callout

Trump White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt got snippy with CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes over an evacuation message that was changed after ABC News’s Jon Karl and others called it out.

On Tuesday night, Karl called out the Trump administration’s hotline for Americans in the Middle East over a recording that included the message “Please do not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure or evacuation.”

The message was changed some time later. As of Wednesday morning, callers are now told “The U.S. has committed to helping U. S. citizens who want to leave the region to do so. If you are calling for assistance with travel, please stay on the line.”

After selecting another prompt, the message says, “We are expecting a high call volume today and anticipate longer than average wait time,” followed by hold music.

Cordes asked Leavitt about the message at Wednesday’s White House press briefing, and the press secretary complained about the attention the recording got, and demanded everyone cover the new message — which Mediaite did first thing this morning:

CBS NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT NANCY CORDES: The Americans who called the State Department hotline as recently as last night were being told, we can’t help you. You have to make your own plans.

WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY KAROLINE LEAVITT: Well the line was updated and I expect every single person in this room to report on that accurately so that information can be relayed appropriately to your audiences and to the American people.

I think as journalists you all have a responsibility to let them know that the line has been updated accordingly with the proper guidance.

Because I saw many people in this very quick to do selfie videos with the line yesterday but not so quick to report the corrected message today.

So that is something the administration quickly worked to address and we have fixed that problem.

However, we’re also pointing to people to the website, again, to register so that we know exactly where you are.

So when there are commercial flights moving into that area, when there are chartered flights moving to that area we can get Americans on planes as quickly as possible.

CBS NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT NANCY CORDES: How many charter flights have been able to get out of the region so far with Americans on board?

WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY KAROLINE LEAVITT: I don’t have an exact count for you, but I know that we’re working on counter- chartering many flights.

As soon as we were doing it yesterday, we’re doing it again today, and I don- you should not expect us to detail exactly when these flights are taking off for obvious reasons.

The Iranians have shown that they are not going to hesitate to target civilians in the region, which is completely intolerable, but for safety and security regions we’re not going be broadcasting when flights full of Americans are going to be off, obviously.

Watch above via CNN.

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