White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday said that CNN “would benefit from new ownership” moments after a tense exchange with Kaitlan Collins.
During Thursday’s White Housing briefing, Collins asked the press secretary a question regarding inflation. When Collins claimed there were “mixed signals” regarding the state of the economy, Leavitt interjected to argue that inflation was actually down in comparison to the end of former President Joe Biden’s term.
When Collins said that “no one’s arguing it wasn’t high under Biden,” Leavitt again interjected to accuse the media of not covering Biden-era inflation with the same vigor. The two repeatedly cut one another off until Leavitt said Collins and others “want to push untrue narratives about the president.”
Moments later, Leavitt called on Wall Street Journal reporter Brian Schwartz for a pair of questions. The second one focused on the impending deal between Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery, and Leavitt used that as an opportunity to go after Collins and CNN again.
She said:
Well, I think the president’s comments yesterday about the sale of CNN and new leadership is evidenced by my exchange with the CNN reporter in this room. Their viewership has gone down, the ratings have declined, and I think the president rightfully believes that network would benefit from new ownership, with respect to this deal. He has great respect for both companies who are bidding against one another, and I won’t weigh in any further than that.
The day before, Trump called CNN’s current leadership a “disgrace” and insisted that any WBD deal would have to include the network, as well.
