CNN's John Berman appeared to knock a Donald Trump spokeswoman off balance Thursday by repeatedly fact-checking her on-air claims.
Karoline Leavitt, the Republican nominee's national press secretary, rolled off a litany of supposed failures by Kamala Harris on the economy, border security, energy production and crime, and said she did not deserve a promotion from vice president after Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign.
Berman stepped in after almost every exclamation to provide a fact check.
"There's more domestic energy production right now than there's ever been in U.S. history and Kamala Harris was not the border czar, she was appointed to deal with the Northern Triangle," Berman told her after her accusations.
"But let me ask you a follow-up to my initial question here: Even if what you say, taking your argument there, if the voters in all these states are seeing the vice president as the candidate of a change. Does it tell you that maybe they are beginning to see a Republican nominee who's 78 years old and has been running for president for nine years, is that beginning to have an impact?"
Leavitt barreled on with the claims that Berman just corrected, and she insisted that polling shows voters trust Trump more on the economy, immigration and foreign policy than the Democrats. She argued that age should not be a factor in the race, despite Biden dropping out over concerns within his own party about his age and fitness — concerns that Trump frequently amplified.
"This race is not about age," Leavitt said. "It's about competence, and President Trump has proven to be a leader who can bring stability back to this world, who can bring peace through this world, who can make America strong again, and that's why voters trust him on the issues that matter."
Berman, however, refused to let her steamroll through the interview.
"She was not appointed the border czar, she was appointed to deal with the Northern Triangle," Berman repeated.
"You say that Donald Trump was a candidate of stability. Why was Donald Trump over the last 36 hours on his social media re-posting slogans from QAnon and reposting misogynistic, sexist content about Vice President Harris?"
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Leavitt argued that CNN's viewers were not concerned about social media posts, but were instead worried about reports of crime by undocumented migrants and gas prices but Berman pressed on, asking if she knew why Trump had posted sexually demeaning comments about Harris and Hillary Clinton.
"Karoline, Karoline – do you know why he posted that?" Berman asked. "Do you know why he reposted that content?"
Leavitt paused for a moment and said the same thing that campaign senior aide Jason Miller told CNN's Kasie Hunt earlier Thursday, saying she hadn't had a chance to speak to the former president since he shared the lewd post. She then piled on a series of attacks on Harris before the host took up the question yet again.
"I do want to ask you again, the social media content reposted by the Republican nominee in the last 36 hours, how do you explain it?" Berman said. "How do you explain why he is reposting content from QAnon and this misogynist content?"
Leavitt argued that the unconnected murders of three women by migrants were more demeaning than Trump's social media activity, but Berman said voters can care about multiple issues at once — and pressed again for an explanation.
"When there's content being reposted that uses QAnon slogans and when there are these sexist, misogynistic posts, it's interesting to me that you can't, you're not – you don't think they're bad," he said. "You have no problem with them."
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