President Trump has again lashed out at media outlets that have reported things he doesn’t like — and he’s now singled out one CNN reporter, whom he says should be fired by the network and “thrown out ‘like a dog.’”
On Tuesday, CNN was first to report that Trump’s military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend “did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months,” citing “an early US intelligence assessment” produced by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency. Other news outlets, including the New York Times, the Associated Press and ABC News, matched the network’s reporting.
Trump has insisted that the U.S. military strikes on Iran resulted in the “total obliteration” of the regime’s nuclear weapons program. At the same time, Trump told reporters at a NATO summit on Wednesday, “The intelligence was very inconclusive. The intelligence says, ‘We don’t know, it could have been very severe’ — that’s what the intelligence says.”
On Wednesday, Trump unleashed a new rant aimed at CNN national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand, one of the reporters on the story.
“Natasha Bertrand should be FIRED from CNN! I watched her for three days doing Fake News. She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out ‘like a dog,’” the president wrote on Truth Social, the platform operated by Trump Media & Technology Group.
In the post, Trump referred to a story Bertrand had written for Politico in 2020. That article said, “More than 50 former senior intelligence officials have signed on to a letter outlining their belief that the recent disclosure of emails allegedly belonging to Joe Biden’s son ‘has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.’” Following the New York Post’s initial report about Hunter Biden’s laptop in October of that year, other news outlets including the New York Times and Politico have reported that the laptop did belong to Hunter Biden and the documents on it were authentic.
“She lied on the Laptop from Hell Story, and now she lied on the Nuclear Sites Story, attempting to destroy our Patriot Pilots by making them look bad when, in fact, they did a GREAT job and hit ‘pay dirt’ — TOTAL OBLITERATION!” Trump said in the post. “She should not be allowed to work at Fake News CNN. It’s people like her who destroyed the reputation of a once great Network. 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!”
In a statement about Trump’s rant, CNN said, “We stand 100% behind Natasha Bertrand’s journalism and specifically her and her colleagues’ reporting of the early intelligence assessment of the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. CNN’s reporting made clear that this was an initial finding that could change with additional intelligence. We have extensively covered President Trump’s own deep skepticism about it. 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.”
Bertrand is one of three CNN reporters with bylines on the story, alongside Katie Bo Lillis and Zachary Cohen.
In an earlier statement sent to Variety, a spokesperson for the news outlet said, “CNN stands by our thorough reporting on an early intelligence assessment of the recent strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which has since been confirmed by other news organizations. The White House has acknowledged the existence of the assessment, and their statement is included in our story.”
Earlier Wednesday, Trump lashed out at both CNN and the New York Times. “We just caught the Failing New York Times, working with Fake News CNN, cheating again!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They tried to demean the great work our B-2 pilots did, and they were wrong in doing so. These reporters are just BAD AND SICK PEOPLE. You would think they would be proud of the great success we had, instead of trying to always make our Country look bad. TOTAL OBLITERATION!”
That came after he wrote in a post Tuesday evening, “FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY. THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!”
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