White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt cut off Kaitlan Collins on Thursday as the CNN reporter pressed National Security Advisor Mike Waltz on President Donald Trump saying Ukraine “started” a war with Russia.
Waltz was confronted multiple times with questions on whether he agreed with Trump’s statement that Ukraine “started” the war with Russia, including by Collins who brought up a 2023 op-ed penned by Waltz in which he said Russia was as responsible for the war with Ukraine as Al-Qaeda was for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“What I share the president’s assessment on is that war needs to end,” Waltz said.
The national security advisor did not directly say whether he agreed with Trump’s specific comment, but said they are aligned in their quest for peace in multiple regions.
“Okay, so you do share that assessment. Can I follow up? In 2017, President Trump—” Collins said as Leavitt called on another reporter.
“You just had two questions, Kaitlan,” Leavitt said as Collins continued to try and press Waltz.
Check out the exchange below:
KAITLAN COLLINS: “To follow up on Peter’s question, you wrote in an op ed the fall of 2023 that, quote, Putin is to blame, certainly like Al-Qaeda was to blame for 9/11. Do you still feel that way now or do you share the president’s assessment, as he says, Ukraine
is to blame for the start of this war?”MIKE WALTZ: “Well, it shouldn’t surprise you that I share the president’s assessment on all kinds of issues. What I wrote as a member of Congress — as a former member of Congress — what I share the president’s assessment on is that the war has to end. And what comes with that? What comes with that should be at some point elections. What comes with that should be peace. What comes with that is prosperity that we’ve just offered in this natural resources and economic partnership arrangement. An end to the killing and European security and security for the world. The president’s not only determined to do that in Europe, he’s determined to do it in the Middle East. And just a few months ago, we had an administration that had tried for 15 months, week after week, sitting with you here and couldn’t get us to a ceasefire, couldn’t get our hostages out. Now we’re at that point, we’re back to maximum pressure on Iran. And we have just begun and we will drive towards a ceasefire and all of those other steps. I’m not going to prenegotiate or get ahead of the sequencing of all of that. It’s a very delicate situation. But this is a president of peace. And who here would argueagainst peace?”COLLINS: “Okay, so you do share that assessment. Can I follow up? In 2017, President Trump—”KAROLINE LEAVITT: “Jordan, go ahead.COLLINS: “Can I just follow up?LEAVITT: “You just had two questions, Kaitlan. Jordan, go ahead.”COLLINS: “I have an important follow up.”LEAVITT: “Jordan, go ahead.”
Watch above via Fox News.