CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Relentlessly Calls Out Trump Ally Over Easing Oil Sanctions on Country US Is ‘At War With’

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins relentlessly called out Trump ally Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) as he tried to dismiss the consequences if President Donald Trump were to lift sanctions on some Iranian oil.

As the Iran war rages through a third week, attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz have exacerbated surging prices and roiled the stock market.

Trump Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Maria Bartiromo on Thursday morning that the U.S. “may unsanction the Iranian oil that’s on the water” to increase supply on the global market.

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins pressed Perry on the idea of “easing sanctions on a country that the United States is currently at war with.”

Perry repeatedly tried to suggest that Iran would not get the money from that oil, and Collins pushed back every time:

COLLINS: On this front, though, you talk about Iran and what a threat they are, and what a disaster of a regime they are to their people, to the world.

Secretary Scott Bessent said today, the Treasury Secretary, that the U.S. might suspend sanctions on Iranian oil that’s already out to sea, amid these high prices. I think some people might say, why would you ease sanctions on a country that the United States is currently at war with? How would you answer that?

PERRY: Well, I would answer that, Do you think that Iran is — once that oil arrives wherever its destination is, do you think that Iran is getting the check? Do you think they’re going to be able to get the money?

COLLINS: Yes.

PERRY: The money is probably going to come to the United States of America.

COLLINS: They are getting the money.

PERRY: How are they getting the money? Or is it being wired by China and by India? To what bank in Iran?

COLLINS: Yes.

PERRY: And if there is a bank in Iran–

COLLINS: But–

PERRY: In about 15 minutes, it can be gone.

COLLINS: But that is what’s happening. I mean, that is who’s buying their oil.

PERRY: Well you say — you say that — you say — yes but that — that’s what you’re — the ships at sea, right, you’re saying, the President’s considering reducing sanctions for that oil? Because the payment’s never going to get to Iran. That’s pre-war.

We’re into this 20 days, Kaitlan. We’re into this 20 days. I mean, everything has changed. We’re acting — you’re acting as though we’re 20 days ago when Iran was sending this ghost fleet around, in violation of the sanctions, getting paid. That’s all different now. Everything has changed. The banking — so they don’t even have an internet in Iran right now.

COLLINS: Well but the leadership does. Obviously they turn it off–

PERRY: You think somebody is going to the ATM? We can’t even find–

COLLINS: Yes.

PERRY: We can’t even find the supreme — the so-called Supreme Leader. Is he alive? Does he have a leg? Is he in a coma? We don’t know any of these things.

COLLINS: But I don’t think that means that they’re not getting any of the money from their — from oil right now. I mean, they turned off the internet for the people of Iran. That’s certainly true.

PERRY: Right. Right. Well–

COLLINS: But I think some people might not see the rationale and the reasoning.

PERRY: And look, you’re speculating and so am I. But I don’t think you can assume — I don’t think you can assume that the terms of sale are the same as they were 20 days ago now.

COLLINS: But do you have any issue with that, I guess, in principle, of easing those Iranian sanctions while the U.S. is at war with Iran?

PERRY: I think the–

COLLINS: Or do you see the logic in that?

PERRY: No, the issue is, is that we are not going to punish the countries that receive the oil, because they’re likely going to get it for free, or they’re going to pay us for it.

The point is, is Iran is not going to get the money. And even if Iran were to get the money, where are they going to spend it, you know? Russia is not helping them. China is not helping them. And I don’t know if anything’s much open on the streets right now in Iran. I think people are hunkered down in survival mode right now.

COLLINS: Yes, I think Russia is–

PERRY: And so, I don’t think the regime is going to be headed out for vacation on their new — the new influx of money from the money that’s sold to China or India.

COLLINS: Yes, I mean, I think Russia is still helping them. They’re helping them target U.S. forces and assets in the region, as you know.

PERRY: Well that’s a claim–

COLLINS: But we’ll leave the conversation there.

PERRY: –that’s a — that’s a claim — right. That’s a claim. But let’s not speculate.

COLLINS: Yes, well, I mean, it was — we heard intelligence officials saying today, they don’t take U.S. adversaries at their word, when obviously that was a question, and Russia denied it.

PERRY: Sure. Yes. Right.

COLLINS: Republican Congressman Scott Perry, thank you for joining us tonight.

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

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