Kaitlan Collins Draws Sharp Rebuke From Karoline Leavitt in Testy Exchange Over Portland National Guard Deployment
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt got short with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during a testy exchange at Monday afternoon’s briefing over whether President Donald Trump has the authority to deploy National Guard troops from Texas to Portland, Oregon.
The sparring session began with Collins observing that “A federal judge over the weekend that the president had appointed to the bench in his first term in office basically argued that he could not deploy other states’ National Guards to Portland, basically said that it was untethered, his argument, to what was actually happening on the ground,” before asking, “Which local officials in Portland have said that the National Guard is needed there, if any?”
“With all due respect to that judge, I think her opinion is untethered in reality and in the law,” replied Leavitt, who added, “We are appealing that decision, as you know we expect a hearing on it pretty quickly, and we’re very confident in the president’s legal authority to do this, and we are very confident we will win on the merits of the law.”
“But no local officials that you can point to that have said we need the National Guard?” followed up Collins. “Because I spoke to the police chief of Portland last week, he said that the president’s claims just don’t match up with what’s happening on the ground.”
That drew a rebuke from Leavitt, who fired back:
I would encourage you as a reporter to go on the ground and to take a look at for yourself. Because there’s been many members of the press, not press in this room, but independent journalists, some of whom we’ll be inviting to the White House very soon to share their stories, because they have been in the middle of these riots, and they have witnessed the anarchy that is taking place night after night. It’s on video. You should play it on your show. You have a great opportunity in primetime on CNN to show your audience.
Yeah, but you’re probably talking to partisan Democrat officials who are opposed to everything everything this president does. You should also ask the people who live in Portland. We’ve actually heard from many members of the community who have said that this is complete civil disobedience. It’s a mess. It’s been loud. It’s being troubling for neighbors in the community who are just trying to live peacefully. And these people are not there to peacefully protest. They are there to cause mayhem and havoc.
Watch above via Fox News.
