The White House continued to publicly attack CNN journalist Natasha Bertrand on Thursday for reporting on a preliminary intelligence report that claimed the United States did not obliterate Iran’s nuclear facilities, saying she should be “ashamed of herself.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt spent nearly two minutes ranting about Bertrand during the White House’s press briefing, accusing the CNN reporter of publishing a “false narrative” and having a history of reporting false information.
“This is a reporter who has been unfortunately used by people who dislike Donald Trump in this government to push fake and false narratives,” Leavitt said in response to a question about whether the administration was conducting any other assessments of the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“She should be ashamed of herself, and that’s not what reporting is,” Leavitt added.
The White House has been in defense mode since Bertrand reported that a preliminary intelligence assessment found that the United States did not “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend, as the president claimed. Rather, the strikes set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions by months.
Several other news outlets, including theThe New York Times and Fox News, later matched Bertrand’s reporting.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also confirmed the existence of the report while downplaying its accuracy.
On Wednesday, Trump called for CNN to fire Bertrand, saying she “lied” and should be “thrown out like a dog.”
CNN said it stands “100 percent” behind Bertrand’s reporting.
Leavitt doubled down on the attacks during Thursday’s press briefing, alleging Bertrand had used false intelligence from officials to report that the Hunter Biden laptop controversy could have been Russian disinformation.
“It was Natasha Bertrand who had 51 intelligence analysts falsely lie to her, but she still put it on paper for some reason, that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation. We all know that’s not true, right?” Leavitt said.
It is still highly debated how much of the Hunter Biden laptop story was false or true. Parts of it have been confirmed through investigations, while other findings indicate some of the emails may have been tampered with.
Leavitt also suggested Bertrand was wrong to report intelligence officials ruled out the man-made lab leak theory for COVID-19; lied that Trump called military officials “suckers and losers”; and insinuated John Ratcliffe lied about Iran targeting Trump.
“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,” Leavitt said, claiming that the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were a “total obliteration.”
