CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Drops Pile of Video Receipts on Trump Spox After Briefing Brawl
CNN anchor and senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins dropped a pile of video receipts on White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt after Leavitt attacked Collins at a briefing over President Donald Trump’s remarks about purchasing too many dolls.
Collins incensed Leavitt at Thursday’s briefing when she asked, “If the economy is as strong as the president has said it is, why is he telling parents two weeks before Christmas that they should only buy two or three dolls for their children?”
Leavitt went on the attack, accusing Collins of failing to report on inflation under then-President Joe Biden and refusing to take her follow-up question.
On Thursday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins set the record straight with a flurry of clips demonstrating the falseness of Leavitt’s claims:
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TRUMP: We had the greatest economy in history in my first term. I think we’re blowing it away right now.
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COLLINS: That was President Trump tonight, in the Oval Office, touting the state of the U.S. economy, as his standing with voters on what is historically a strong issue for him has sharply declined recently.
Earlier, in a post on Truth Social, the President again falsely claimed that there is currently no inflation. That has been true. But it comes, after his White House press secretary grew defensive over the administration’s statements about the economy, during today’s press briefing.
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COLLINS: Inflation is about what it was a year ago, as you know, and grocery prices have been up. So, we’ve covered the economy, but there’s mixed signals in terms of what that looks like. But on–
LEAVITT: Inflation is down from where it was. As measured by the overall CPI, it has slowed to an average 2.5 percent pace. This is down from what the President inherited–
COLLINS: It’s down from where it was at highs at 9 percent, but it’s at about 3 percent.
LEAVITT: The President inherited 2.9 percent in January. Today, it’s at about 2.5 percent. So we’re trending in the right direction with more to come.
And I would remind you, when President Trump left office in his first term, inflation was 1.7 percent. And the previous administration jacked it up to a record high 9 percent. So again, in 10 months, the President has clawed us out of this hole. He’s kept it low at 2.5 percent, and we believe that number is going to continue to decline, especially as energy and oil prices continue to decline as well.
COLLINS: Yes. No one is arguing it wasn’t high under Biden, they’re just saying it’s not virtually–
LEAVITT: Well nobody reported on it being high under Biden.
COLLINS: It’s not virtually–
LEAVITT: My predecessor was standing at this podium. But now you want to ask me a lot of questions about it, which I’m happy to answer. But I will just add, there’s a lot more scrutiny on this issue from this press corps than there was–
COLLINS: Because the President has said it’s virtually non-existent.
LEAVITT: Well — and the previous administration said that too.
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COLLINS: Now, despite what Karoline Leavitt argued, we did cover inflation during the Biden administration, whether that was questioning his press secretary or the President himself.
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COLLINS: And what’s the White House’s expectation for the inflation report that is expected to come out this week?
JEN PSAKI, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don’t have a prediction. I know I sometimes do, but I don’t have a prediction on it at this moment from here.
COLLINS: President Biden, inflation has just hit nearly a 40-year- high. Do you think this is the peak of those prices?
JOE BIDEN, 46TH U.S. PRESIDENT: Every other aspect of the economy is racing ahead. It’s doing incredibly well.
COLLINS: One thing that they do address in here is inflation.
Prices are still incredibly high, across the United States.
Prices are still incredibly high, as they had skyrocketed over the last year.
Higher prices are plaguing President Biden.
President Biden came out and said that fighting inflation is going to be his number one priority.
President Biden acknowledging the pain of higher prices.
President Biden staring down a massive political liability.
A massive headache for the White House.
At least one top White House official is admitting they were wrong, when they said that inflation only posed a small risk, if any risk at all.
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COLLINS: So the bottom line is, we did cover it, and we did certainly ask about it. Of course we did. We covered the news here.
But when it comes to the numbers themselves, as CNN’s Daniel Dale highlights tonight, of where we stand right now, the year-over-year inflation rate in January, when President Trump returned to Office, was 3 percent.
In September, the most recent month for which the Consumer Price Index figures were released, the rate was also 3 percent. It’s a fact my colleague from CBS News, Nancy Cordes, highlighted moments later in the briefing today.
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NANCY CORDES, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CBS NEWS: First, very quickly clarifying Kaitlan’s question, you acknowledged that CPI in January, when you took office, was 3 percent. And in September, the last month for which we have data, it was also 3 percent. So inflation–
LEAVITT: No. It’s 2.5 percent.
CORDES: Not in September. It was 3 percent.
LEAVITT: It’s 2.5 percent, the average CPI, right now. I have it in front of me. In President Trump’s first eight months in office, inflation, as measured by the overall Consumer Price Index, has slowed to a 2.5 average pace. This is down from the 2.9 percent inherited in January.
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Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
