Karoline Leavitt and Kaitlan Collins went back and forth about Donald Trump’s continued attempts to deploy the National Guard in Portland.
During Monday’s White House press briefing, the CNN reporter asked the press secretary about a federal judge’s argument over the weekend that the president could not deploy other states’ National Guard to Portland. Collins followed that up by asking if the local officials in Portland were even asking for the government’s aid.
“With all due respect to that judge, I think her opinion is untethered in reality and in the law,” Leavitt said. “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.”
Again, Collins asked whether local officials were seeking help from Trump in the National Guard during the anti-ICE protests taking place. She added that in conversations with the Portland chief of police “he said that the president’s claims just don’t match up with what’s happening on the ground.”
“I would encourage you as a reporter to go on the ground and to take a look for yourself,” Leavitt responded. “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.”
She added: “Yeah, but you’re probably talking to partisan Democrat officials who are opposed to 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.”
Collins shared the full exchange on her social media, which you can watch above. When another account posted Leavitt’s remarks directing Collins and CNN to go on the ground in Portland and see how bad it really was, Collins commented with video of her interview with the Portland chief of police saying Trump’s claims compared to the city’s realities are not lined up.
“I was quoting the Portland police chief,” she wrote.
Collins and Leavitt were not the only CNN jouranlist and White House staffer to get into a verbal altercation on Monday. Stephen Miller and Boris Sanchez also traded words about the National Guard being deployed into Portland to help combat what Miller called “street terrorists.”
