Karoline Leavitt Derails Presser to Trash Reporter Who Broke Iran Leak

The Trump administration is going full throttle against a CNN journalist.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt lost it on Natasha Bertand during a Thursday press conference, lashing the Pentagon correspondent for daring to report on Donald Trump and his aides.

Earlier this week, Bertrand really got under Trump’s skin when she reported on air that a leaked preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment of Saturday’s airstrike on three Iranian nuclear targets suggested it had not been as successful as the president had advertised, and had only set the country’s nuclear development back by some months, rather than by several years.

When asked about Bertrand’s report, Leavitt used the opportunity to bring up every story Bertrand has written that Trump doesn’t like. For more than two straight minutes, Leavitt flamed Bertrand for reporting that the Hunter Biden laptop controversy was “Russian disinformation” (the New York Post, which ran the original story on its front page, said in the aftermath of the report that the contents of the laptop were mixed with fake material and that most of the data could not be verified), while urging the crowd to agree that the story was a “lie” from the intelligence community.

She further claimed that Bertand had inaccurately reported on the origin of the Covid-19 virus, had taken Trump’s “suckers and losers” comment out of context, and had wrongly accused CIA Director John Ratcliffe of speaking “without any evidence” with regard to Iranian meddling in Trump’s presidential campaign.

“She should be ashamed of herself,” Leavitt said. “And that’s not what reporting is. Journalism is trying to find the facts and the truth, and this week we saw this same reporter being used to push a fake narrative to try to undermine the president of the United States, and more importantly, the brave fighter pilots who conducted one of the most successful operations in United States history.

“I think the American people fully know that this operation was a complete and total success,” Leavitt added.

Leavitt’s rant followed several days’ worth of anti-Bertrand comments by the president, who urged CNN to reprimand Bertrand and throw her out “like a dog.”

“It’s people like her who destroyed the reputation of a once great Network,” Trump wrote. “Her slant was so obviously negative, besides, she doesn’t have what it takes to be an on-camera correspondent, not even close. FIRE NATASHA!”

CNN released a statement defending Bertrand Wednesday, declaring that they stand “100 percent” behind her journalism, specifically including her and her colleague’s reporting on Trump’s attack on Iran.

“CNN’s reporting made clear that this was an initial finding that could change with additional intelligence,” the network said. “However, we do not believe it is reasonable to criticize CNN reporters for accurately reporting the existence of the assessment and accurately characterizing its findings, which are in the public interest.”

The White House has rejected the Iran strikes report, rebuffing the whistleblower Tuesday as a “low-level loser,” though it still acknowledged that the report had been classified as “top secret.” On Wednesday, the administration had apparently thrown the U.S. intelligence out the window altogether, siding instead with a narrative pushed by the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission that the attacks had “rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.”

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has struck some notable provisions from President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” leading a growing chorus of GOP lawmakers to call on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to overrule or fire her.

Being a reconciliation bill—which can pass with a simple majority, rather than the 60-vote threshold required to overcome a filibuster—the legislation cannot contain provisions unrelated to the budget. Currently, MacDonough is tasked with whittling away “extraneous” measures that run afoul of that rule.

In doing so, she has incensed some MAGA hard-liners, most recently pushing some over the edge by lopping off a number of Medicaid cuts on Thursday morning.

Reacting to the news, Senator Tommy Tuberville on X accused MacDonough of advancing “a woke agenda,” writing, “THE SENATE PARLIAMENTARIAN SHOULD BE FIRED ASAP.”

Senator Roger Marshall joined Tuberville, citing the firing of Parliamentarian Robert Dove in 2001 and declaring that “we need to again fire the Senate Parliamentarian.”

The calls are coming from inside the House, as well.

Representative Dan Crenshaw—who was particularly upset about the removal of his proposal to ban federal Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care—said MacDonough “has shown clear political bias, applying ideology and not the rules of the Senate.”

Also pushing to remove or override MacDonough are Representatives Greg Steube, Keith Self, and Jeff Van Drew.

As the majority leader, Thune could theoretically call for a vote to overrule MacDonough, or fire and replace her. But the South Dakota senator seemingly has no intention of doing so, telling reporters on Thursday that overruling her “would not be a good option for getting a bill done”—echoing his previous comments.

“These are … short-term setbacks,” Thune said, according to The Hill. “Speed bumps, if you will.” GOP lawmakers endure these speed bumps as they race toward Trump’s July 4 deadline to pass the bill.

On Thursday Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is still set on removing fluoride from drinking water even after admitting that it did help prevent cavities and tooth decay in children. 

“What has been the response from dentists in America who may be concerned that some children in lower incomes in particular don’t get those regular dental, preventative-type situations where they can go in and get their teeth more indemnified and treated against cavities?” Fox News’s Harris Faulkner asked Kennedy Jr. as he sat next to Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt. 

“Well, people will still get indemnified for it to the extent that they’re already indemnified. But you know, it is an issue. It’s a balance. You’re gonna see, probably, slightly more cavities. Although in Europe where they banned fluoride they did not see an uptick in cavities. The issue is, parents need to decide. Science is very clear on fluoride.” 

Europe has not “banned” fluoride, they just don’t add it to their public water supplies like we do here. Europeans still receive fluoride at the dentist. Even still, Kennedy has had his mind set on this fluoride ban for some time now.  

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” he wrote in November. “Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease. President ​Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump want to Make America Healthy Again.​”

Dental professionals nationwide are troubled by this development.

“The growing distrust of credible, time-tested, evidence-based science is disheartening. The myths that fluoridated water is harmful and no longer necessary to prevent dental disease is troublesome and reminds me of fictional plots from old movies like Dr. Strangelove,” said American Dental Association President Brett Kessler. “When government officials, like Secretary Kennedy, stand behind the commentary of misinformation and distrust peer-reviewed research it is injurious to public health.” 

Forget “Make America Great Again”—Donald Trump won’t even manufacture his own phone in the United States.

The Trump-branded cell phone, which launched mere days ago, has already scrubbed all language from its website that indicates the product is made in America. Instead, the phone is “designed with American values in mind,” with strange marketing promises that there are “American hands behind every device,” per the Trump Mobile website. That could, of course, mean anything.

The website also features a poorly photoshopped mock-up of the new Trump phone, which looks not too dissimilar to an iPhone save for its three copy-pasted cameras. The cell has a matte gold finish, along with a laser-engraved American flag and “T1” on the back.

A review of the site by The Verge found that the move away from American production wasn’t the only change made since the phone previewed last week. The advertised screen size of the Trump phone has also dropped significantly, changing from a 6.78-inch screen to 6.25 inches.

The site used to list the phone as having 12 gigabytes of RAM—now there are no RAM specifications whatsoever.

Further, the site had previously promised that the gimmicky gadget would ship in September, but that language no longer exists in marketing materials. Instead, the company is offering that it will be available “later this year.”

The Verge reported that the differences could mean that the Trump Organization had switched suppliers for the T1 phone.

The cell phone appears to be just another example in a long line of money-grabbing grifts for the president. Trump’s long list of election-year hustles included launching a remarkably ugly sneaker and a limited-edition $60 God Bless the USA Bible co-promoted by “God Bless the USA” singer Lee Greenwood.

Trump also took the parent company of his social media platform Truth Social public and stamped his name on a new cryptocurrency platform headed by his two sons, Eric and Don Jr., that even the president’s allies have criticized as a “huge mistake.” He and his wife also started their own cryptocurrencies, which critics have accused of being a method for wealthy foreigners to buy time and influence with the president.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the Supreme Court was “stymying one of the country’s great civil rights laws” after it ruled 6–3 that states could defund Planned Parenthood on the grounds that Medicaid does not give patients a right to choose their provider.

Jackson offered a biting dissent, essentially calling the court’s decision a bastardization of the first section of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, which bolstered laws against white supremacist terrorism.

“A century and a half later, the project of stymying one of the country’s great civil rights laws continues. In this latest chapter, South Carolina urges our Court to adopt a narrow and ahistorical reading of the 1871 Act’s first section.… That venerable provision permits any citizen to obtain redress in federal court for ‘the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States,’” Jackson wrote. “South Carolina asks us to hollow out that provision so that the State can evade liability for violating the rights of its Medicaid recipients to choose their own doctors. The Court abides South Carolina’s request. I would not. For that reason, I respectfully dissent.”

This ruling makes Planned Parenthood incredibly vulnerable to conservative attacks, as states can now nakedly use anti-abortion activism to deprive it of funds. Though all they’re really attacking is the contraception, cancer screenings, pregnancy testing, and other basic medical care that Planned Parenthood provides as an organization that accepts publicly funded insurance, like Medicaid. The Hyde Amendment already restricts public funding from being used for abortions. And Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of contraceptives and birth control in the country. Its absence will almost certainly lead to more accidental pregnancies—and more abortions, legal or illegal.

“At a minimum, it will deprive Medicaid recipients in South Carolina of their only meaningful way of enforcing a right that Congress has expressly granted to them,” Jackson concluded in her dissent. “And, more concretely, it will strip those South Carolinians—and countless other Medicaid recipients around the country—of a deeply personal freedom: the ‘ability to decide who treats us at our most vulnerable.’”