WH Responds To Questions From the Press About Gabbard Report
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered a sharp rebuke to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday after the reporter suggested that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified a key report on the Trump-Russia collusion narrative to gain favor with President Donald Trump.
The exchange occurred during a White House press briefing where Gabbard presented newly declassified documents showing that former President Barack Obama and his national security team were directly involved in advancing the discredited Russia-collusion narrative that dogged Trump’s first term.
Collins pressed Gabbard on whether the timing of the release was politically motivated, asking, “What would you say to people who believe that you are only releasing these documents now to improve your standing with the president after he said that your intelligence assessment of [Iran’s nuclear capabilities] were wrong?”
Kaitlan Collins is an absolute imbecile and a pure partisan hack.
Have some respect for the two women standing in front of you who are exposing lies, deep corruption and keeping the country safe.
The White House should pull her credentials.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 23, 2025
Gabbard’s reaction — a visible expression of disgust — set the tone for what followed. Leavitt then stepped in, dismantling the premise of the question.
“What is in the newly declassified information is something we didn’t have before — and that is the fact that the intelligence community was concocting this narrative that the president colluded with the Russians,” Leavitt said. “That the president’s son was holding secret meetings with the Russians. All of these lies that were never true.”
Leavitt then challenged Collins directly: “Who is saying that? That she [Gabbard] would release this to try to boost her standings with the president. Who has said that?”
When Collins cited Trump’s past public criticisms of Gabbard, Leavitt shot back: “The only people who are suggesting that the Director of National Intelligence would release evidence to try to boost her standing with the president are the people in this room, who consistently try to sow distrust and chaos among the President’s cabinet. And it is not working.”
I am so here for this throwdown between @DNIGabbard and @PressSec @KarolineLeavitt vs. CNN's @KaitlanCollins pic.twitter.com/fH2YILPwQ0
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 23, 2025
Leavitt emphasized that Trump has “the utmost confidence in Director Gabbard” and that the cabinet is unified in executing his agenda.
The briefing also saw Leavitt take aim at legacy media outlets, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, which won Pulitzer Prizes for their Russia-collusion coverage.
“This is truly one of the greatest political scandals in American history,” Leavitt said. “It’s well past time for those awards to be stripped from the journalists who received them. It is not journalism to propagate political disinformation in service of the Democrat Party.”