Karoline Leavitt Puts CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Blast Over Questions About the Economy

During a White House press briefing on Thursday dominated by questions about either the economy or Venezuela, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt threw down with former conservative reporter-turned-liberal CNN host and chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins over the former topic with Collins insisting the state of the economy was not as strong as Leavitt made it seem and Leavitt hitting back the economy has improved from the Biden years.

Collins started off by asking about President Trump’s comments from Tuesday night in which he was “telling parents two weeks before Christmas that they should only buy two or three dolls for their children.”

Leavitt first addressed the need to make more products in America: “[I]f we want products made right here in America...which is a large part of the reason the President has effectively implemented tariffs, then we’re going to have better quality products...Maybe you’ll pay a dollar or two more, but you will get better quality, and you’ll be supporting your fellow Americans by buying American.”

 

Leavitt broadened out and directly took aim at Collins and her network:

[W]ith respect to affordability, every economic metric, Kaitlan, and I wish you would report more on it does, in fact, show that the economy is getting better and brighter than where it was under the previous administration. I will repeat, inflation as measured by the overall CPI has slowed to an average 2.5 percent pace. Real wages are increasing roughly $1,200 for the average worker. Gas prices are down in almost every single state across the country. Again, in 22 states, it’s below 2.75. You look at the tax cuts, those are going to go into effect next year, so the best is yet to come. The President is digging our country out of the economic hole that the previous administration put us in and that’s what he’s talking about.

Collins replied “inflation is about what it was a year ago, as you know, and grocery prices have been up” and “we’ve covered the economy,” but made sure to tell viewers it’s “mixed.”

She also tried to nitpick on inflation, which Leavitt wasn’t having:

This is down from what the President inherited. The President inherited 2.9 percent in January. Today, it’s at about 2.5 percent. So, we’re trending in the right direction with more to come. And I would remind you, when President Trump left office in his first term, inflation was 1.7 percent and the previous administration jacked it up to a record high nine percent. So again, in ten months, the President has clawed us out of this hole. He’s kept it low at 2.5 percent, and we believe that number is going to continue to decline, especially as energy and oil prices continue to decline as well.

After hearing Collins claim “no one” was “arguing it wasn’t high under Biden,” Leavitt unloaded by invoking the economic denials from Biden White House Press Secretaries Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre that Collins and her fellow liberal lackeys “just took at [their] word.”

This disconnect, Leavitt argued, has been purposeful to “push untrue narratives about the President” (click “expand”):

LEAVITT: My predecessor was standing at this podium, but now you want to ask me a lot of questions about it, which I’m happy to answer. But I will just add, there’s a lot more scrutiny on this issue from this press corps than there was — 

COLLINS: Because the President has said it’s non-existent. Non-existent.

LEAVITT: — well, and the previous administration said that too.

COLLINS: Right.

LEAVITT: My predecessor, stood up at this podium and she said inflation doesn’t exist. She said the border was secure and people like you just took her at her word and those were two utter lies.

COLLINS: That’s not true.

LEAVITT: Everything I’m telling you is the truth, backed by real factual data. And you just don’t want to report on it because you want to push untrue narratives about the President.

A few minutes before Collins, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann served as Thursday’s example of how it’s farce to argue conservative media writ large shows up to White House events with softballs:

 

Our friend Elizabeth Mitchell at the Daily Signal followed Wegmann and asked for the administration’s reaction to a how-to video from socialist New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani to illegal immigrants on resisting Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE):

 

As our Steve Malzberg noted, this hasn’t received any attention on the flagship network newscasts.

Rewinding even further back in the briefing, Fox’s Peter Doocy pressed Leavitt on Wednesday’s seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker:

 

He also asked whether the seized oil will be injected into the U.S. marketplace and then whether the administration’s build-up off the Venezuelan coast has put in jeopardy the President’s chances at the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize (click “expand”):

DOOCY: And because you said the President is trying to do a lot of things at once, he talks a lot about how he thinks the way to bring down prices for everything would be to bring down the cost of energy. Would he use this seized Venezuelan oil to try to help Americans with affordability here in the United States?

LEAVITT: Well, what I can tell you right now, the vessel has been seized, as you know, and the Department of Justice is did that in conjunction with the Coast Guard and the Department of War. The vessel is currently undergoing a forfeiture process. Right now, the United States currently has a full investigative team on the ground, on the vessel, and individuals on board the vessel are being interviewed, and any relevant evidence is being seized. With respect to the oil, that’s a different issue. As you know, Peter, the vessel will go to a U.S. port, and the United States does intend to seize the oil. However, there is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed.

DOOCY: And my last one on this, if President Trump launches a bigger military campaign in the Caribbean, is he jeopardizing a possible Nobel Peace Prize?

LEAVITT: Look, the President has proven over the past year that he is more than worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. I think he’s been nominated for it nearly 100 times this past year, which is definitely a record. He’s solved, I think, nine conflicts around the world we are up to now. He’s actively working on Russia/Ukraine war, which is the big one as we speak and has been over the past year. With respect to any additional action in Venezuela. I’m not going to get ahead of the President or the United States military.

Staying on the topic of Venezuela, the great Kellie Meyer of NewsNation closed the Q&A by asking about whether the administration views their actions Wednesday as a closer move toward war (see below) and then if they’ve considered how a full-scale war would be seen by the President’s base:

Last but not least, the new media seat went to our friends at Real America’s Voice and host Eric Bolling, who asked about affordability (see below) as well as the fact that blue states have been handing out Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDL) even if applicants can’t understand English:

To see the relevant transcript from the December 11 briefing, click here.