President Donald Trump and his Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem vowed to prosecute CNN over their recent reporting on a controversial ICE-tracking app and the network’s ongoing reporting on the impact of the U.S. strikes on Iran.
While touring the new migrant detention facility in the Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” an off-camera reporter asked the duo:
Mr. President and Madam Secretary, CNN yesterday pushed an app that lets you track where ICE agents are. Tom Homan was saying that perhaps CNN should be prosecuted for that as obstruction of law enforcement. Your response?
Noem replied first, “Yeah, we’re working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them for that. Because what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities, operations, and we’re going to actually go after them and prosecute with the partnership of Pam [Bondi] if we can, because what they are doing we believe is illegal.”
Trump jumped in, “And they may very well be prosecuted also for having given false reports on the attack in Iran. They were given totally false reports. It was totally obliterated. And our people have to be celebrated, not come home and say, “What do you mean we didn’t hit the target?” We hit the target quickly. You know, the pilots came home, they said we hit the target quickly. So they may very well be prosecuted for that. What
“Okay, let’s go. Follow us,” Trump then said, gleefully continuing the tour of the detention center.
Trump has previously threatened to sue CNN for its report on a verified, but leaked, document from the Pentagon concluding that the U.S. strikes on an Iranian nuclear facility may have only set Iran’s nuclear program back months.
The CNN report on the ICE-tracking app refers to the network’s Monday coverage, in which CNN’s anchor John Berman introduced the app as “controversial to say the least.” Berman spoke with reporter Clare Duffy about her interview with the app’s creator.
A CNN spokesman later released a statement on the threat to prosecute the network, “This is an app that is publicly available to any iPhone user who wants to download it. There is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, nor does such reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN.”
Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.