Donald Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt got dissed and dismissed during an interview on CNN Monday, and the former president’s allies are up in arms.
Leavitt was speaking with CNN’s Kasie Hunt when she began criticizing the network, which will host the first Biden-Trump presidential debate on Thursday, June 27.
Leavitt praised her boss for “knowingly going into a hostile environment on this very network, on CNN, with debate moderators who have made their opinions about him very well known over the past eight years.”
Hunt recoiled as her interviewee casually called CNN’s coverage “biased.”
“So I’ll just say my colleagues, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, have acquitted themselves as professionals as they have covered campaigns and interviewed candidates from all sides of the aisle,” Hunt rebutted. “I’ll also say that if you talk to analysts of previous debates, that if you’re attacking the moderators, you’re usually losing.”
The CNN host tried to turn the subject back to what Leavitt expected from Joe Biden’s debate performance, but the conservative spokeswoman couldn’t resist going in on Tapper, who has become a regular target of Trump’s allies ever since being tapped to moderate the upcoming debate.
“Well, first of all, it would take someone five minutes for someone to google ‘Jake Tapper Donald Trump’ to see that Jake Tapper has consistently—” Leavitt began, before Hunt put her hand up, interrupting her.
“Ma’am, I’m going to stop this interview if you’re going to continue to attack my colleagues,” said Hunt, but Leavitt persisted. The two continued to talk over each other, Hunt’s voice rising as she bid her guest to answer the question and stick to talking about Trump.
Leavitt’s insistence on skirting the question so she could muscle through her Trumpian talking point is par for the course for the former president’s allies, who regularly derail interviews so they can breathlessly campaign on air.
Eventually, Hunt just gave up.
“I’m sorry, guys, we’re going to come back out to the panel,” said Hunt. “Karoline, thank you very much for your time. You are welcome to come back at any point. She is welcome to come back and speak about Donald Trump, and Donald Trump will have equal time to Joe Biden when they both join us, now, uh next, later this week in Atlanta for this debate.”
Kudos to @kasie for cutting off @kleavittnh from their interview after the Trump spokeswoman continued attacking Jake Tapper-an attempt by Leavitt to undermine the objectivity of the network and moderator/host ahead of Thursday's Presidential debate. Well done, Kasie Hunt! pic.twitter.com/0KKCrmo6JX
— Resolute Square (@ResoluteSquare) June 24, 2024
Now Republicans are taking aim at Hunt for ending the interview early.
“I would like to thank @kasie for her meltdown this morning,” wrote ethically dubious Representative Matt Gaetz in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Without the booting of @kleavittnh today. Karoline’s legitimate criticisms of CNN wouldn’t have gotten nearly the play they did.”
Right-wing ghoul Stephen Miller also had some unsolicited advice for Hunt.
“Pro tip for CNN: if you silence a guest for truthfully discussing deeply offensive commentary from a CNN host, and abruptly terminate the interview, you succeed only in calling more attention to the CNN host’s alarming bias and outrageous slanders,” he wrote on X.
It’s worth noting that the specific reason Trump allies are taking shots at Tapper is because he has reported on Trump’s fascistic and dehumanizing rhetoric, rightly comparing the former president to Adolf Hitler. Trump even shared a video compilation made by Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec of all the times Tapper has compared him to the Nazi leader.
Strangely, most Republicans took no issue when Steve Bannon did the exact same thing—apparently when he said it, he meant it as a compliment.
Leavitt also weighed in on the onscreen drama. “CNN cutting off my microphone for bringing up a debate moderator’s history of anti-Trump lies just proves our point that President Trump will not be treated fairly in Thursday’s debate. Yet President Trump is still willing to go into this 3–1 fight to bring his winning message to the American people, and he will win,” Leavitt said, according to Fox News.
With all of the attacks against CNN, though, it seems that Trump’s team actually believes the exact opposite. That’s why they’re doing everything they can to undermine the debate’s legitimacy before it even happens.
