CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Hammers Trump With Barrage of Callouts After Confronting Him on Iran Deal

CNN anchor and senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins hammered President Donald Trump with a barrage of callouts hours after she confronted him at a press conference over the Iran deal that was announced and later signed.

The president closed out the 52nd Group of 7 (G7) Summit at Evian-le-Bains, France, with a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, which was dominated by the then-unreleased Iran memorandum of understanding.

Hours after the text of the deal was released, Trump signed the deal at the Palace of Versailles during a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron and first lady Brigitte Macron.

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins opened her show with a blistering analysis of the deal that highlighted multiple contradictions — with receipts — and concluded with her attempt to confront Trump at the G7 presser:

KAITLAN COLLINS: As we come on the air from Geneva tonight, President Trump is in the air, on his way back to the United States, with what sources say is a gentleman’s agreement with Iran.

While he touted the praise that the agreement yielded, from other world leaders who were here at the G7 Summit, and who very much want this war to end. The President is flying back to a Washington that is filled with skepticism, anger, and outright disbelief, and I’m talking about, from Republicans and his own allies.

Initially, the President argued today that the document doesn’t signal the end of what’s going on with Iran, and therefore didn’t warrant his own famous signature.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I’d rather — this is a memorandum of understanding. It’s very important, but it might not be the kind of a document that I should be signing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: But he did ultimately sign the document, actually, again tonight. His aides posted this video of the President putting that signature on a hard copy of the agreement, as he was having dinner with the French President at the Palace of Versailles.

It was not immediately clear why, given what the President said earlier, and also how sources had told us that both the President and the Vice President had already signed an electronic version on Sunday. Regardless, the details in this page and a half document run counter to what the President has been demanding throughout this war, and going back years.

There are 14 specific points in the memo that has now been confirmed by the White House. The very first point listed says that both sides will, quote, “Refrain from the threat or use of force against each other,” and it’s something the President already seems to be hedging on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If I don’t like it, if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head.

If it doesn’t get done in 60 days, that’s all right, we go back to bombing, you know. I don’t want to do that because, it’s so good, but we might have to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: And the President, who back in February, when this war started, urged the Iranian people to keep protesting, and that help was on the way, and that this was their chance for generational change inside their country. He just committed the United States to actually stay out of Iran’s domestic affairs, with his signature on this document tonight.

Regarding another promise that a bigger, more detailed deal is just 60 days away. This is how the President is framing things now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Do you see the 60 days as a hard deadline for a final agreement?

TRUMP: No, I don’t, no.

REPORTER: Did you talk to your team–

TRUMP: Could take longer.

REPORTER: So you could extend–

REPORTER: You could extend this case?

TRUMP: I don’t view it as hard, no.

REPORTER: You don’t think of it as a hard deadline for final–

TRUMP: No. Just as long as they’re behaving, I really don’t care that much.

REPORTER: How long will you leave the U.S. military in the Gulf?

TRUMP: It’s a good question. We haven’t thought of it. We’re really — probably a while. It’s good place to stay.

The question was, how long will you leave the military in the Gulf? I would say a little while, see how it all goes. I think it’s going to go well. But we’ll see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Also, after months of insisting that the Strait of Hormuz was already open, the President did acknowledge today that it was part of what drove him to make this deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The Strait will never be opened. Because people that own billion-dollar ships, these ships cost $1 billion, they don’t like sailing ships or having their ships participate, when you go up the coast, and you go through the Strait, and there are rockets flying over your head. They want to protect their billion-dollar investment. You wouldn’t have oil for, well, maybe years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: According to this document that the President has now signed, Iran has only committed to allow the, quote, safe passage of commercial vehicles with no charge for 60 days only.

And the fact that Iran stands to gain access to hundreds of billions of dollars is also proving harder tonight for the administration to explain and justify to their own allies.

[21:05:00]

While the White House insists that the money will only change hands, if Iran meets some undefined performance goals. There are key provisions that go into place immediately after signing. Those include allowing Iran immediately to start selling its oil per the signature on this agreement. Sources say that could earn $60 billion to $70 billion per year.

Also, in this agreement, the unfreezing of Iranian assets, which could be upwards of $100 billion. On that front, compare what the President had to say when President Obama, for example, unfroze some Iranian assets, as part of that 2015 nuclear deal, with what President Trump said today about unfreezing assets and his deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I would have never given them back the money. I would have said, The money is off the table. Let’s start negotiating. And you know what? I would have won that negotiation.

Well, the unfreezing, it’s an easy one to answer. We have taken a lot of their money, and we have their money. We have taken them.

We can’t continue to make deals like that horrible Iran deal, where we give them $150 billion back.

They don’t want to have a little conflict with somebody and end up having the United States just take their money. So if you do that, you really don’t have a system.

The Iran deal was so bad, we paid a $150 billion to sign a horrible agreement.

It’s not our money, it’s their money, and we froze it. At a certain point in time, I guess we’re going to have to give it back. You know, if we didn’t give it back, nobody would ever invest in the dollar again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, two days after the President said those reports about a $300 million reconstruction fund for Iran were fake news, that provision is indeed in the agreement that the administration unveiled today. Only, its $300 billion. Not $300 million.

The President says, that money is going to come from other nations investing in Iran, not from the United States, and not from taxpayer dollars. But, of course, there are still questions that remain about how that’s going to work, and how the United States is going to play a role in setting up that fund, as is in the agreement.

Part of what’s also striking, as you read through several of these points that the administration confirmed today, is what’s not in the agreement, including several of the objectives that the President laid out at the beginning of this war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. We’re going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world.

Our objectives are clear. First, we’re destroying Iran’s missile capabilities.

Our objectives are very simple and clear. We are systematically dismantling the regime’s ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, almost remarkably, the President is arguing that Iran should be able to keep its missile program.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I said, Well, what am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can’t have them?

Yes, sir.

It can’t — doesn’t work that way, you know? It doesn’t work that way. And missiles aren’t the problem.

I’m saying that if other countries have them, it’s a little bit unfair for them not to have some. A ballistic missile is not the same thing as what we’re talking about, when we talk nuclear. But if Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and they all have some, I would say in relative proportion, I think it’s OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Overall, the President is arguing that the last four months of this war, the economic pain that has been felt around the world, and everything that Iran is now getting as part of this agreement, is worth it to prevent them from having a nuclear weapon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: That’s what was all about. That was about 99 percent Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, they can’t develop it, buy it, they can never have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: But compare the language that the President just signed off on tonight. You saw him signing this document. In it, it says this. Quote, “The Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons.”

Compare that with the language that was in the document President Obama signed, that said, quote, “Under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons.”

The reality tonight is that the President has signed his name to a document that achieves few of the objectives that he laid out at the beginning of this war. Something I tried to question him on as he was leaving that press conference today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Why are you backing off your initial goals?

REPORTER: –Mr. President?

COLLINS: Why are you backing off your initial goals, Mr. President?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.

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