At Wednesday’s White House press briefing, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins tried—and failed—to push a tired narrative about Trump and Russia. This time, she set her sights on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, insinuating that Gabbard only declassified damning evidence about the Russia collusion hoax to get back in President Trump’s good graces. Bad move.
Collins opened by pointing to the 2017 Senate Intelligence Committee report, claiming it proved Russian meddling and insisting Gabbard’s new disclosures were somehow politically motivated and meant to curry favor with President Trump.
“Director Gabbard, you referenced the past intelligence reports… including that 2017 one… signed off by every Republican on the Senate intelligence community—including the acting chair of the time, now Secretary of State Marco Rubio—who sent a statement that they did not find any evidence of Russian collusion. What they did find, however, is very troubling, and they found irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling.”
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She then asked, “Are you saying that he’s wrong in that statement? And… what would you say to people who believe that you’re only releasing these documents now to improve your standing with the president?”
Her line of questioning fell apart almost immediately.
“I want to correct something that you stated,” Gabbard said, calmly but firmly. “Citing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report as being one and the same—I think you said the intelligence community. The Senate Intelligence Committee has a very different function than the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The evidence and the intelligence that has been declassified and released is irrefutable.”
Then came Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who didn’t just back up Gabbard—she torched the entire premise of Collins’ question.
“I’ll speak to both questions,” Leavitt said. “First, on Secretary Rubio—he put out a statement in 2020 following that Senate Intelligence Committee report, and he said what they found is troubling: ‘We found irrefutable evidence of Russia meddling,’ which the director of National Intelligence just confirmed for all of you.”
Then Leavitt got to the real issue: not that Russia tried to meddle, but that the intelligence community invented a narrative that Donald Trump was a Russian asset—complete fiction, pushed by partisan operatives and swallowed whole by the media.
“What’s the outrage in this, that Secretary Rubio did not say at the time, the Democrats were saying at the time, is the fact that the intelligence community was concocting this narrative that the president colluded with the Russians, that the president’s son was holding secret meetings with the Russians—all of these lies that were never true," Leavitt added.
Leavitt reminded the press that even Rubio had warned back then about the FBI’s disturbing reliance on the Clinton-funded Steele dossier—discredited nonsense that the media treated as gospel.
"We discovered deeply troubling actions taken by the FBI under [then-FBI Director James] Comey, particularly their acceptance and willingness to rely on the Steele dossier without verifying its methodology or sourcing—the Steele dossier that many outlets in this room ran as the gospel truth,” she said.
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But it was Collins’ insinuation—that Gabbard was just trying to please Trump—that really set off Leavitt.
“As for your second question, Kaitlan,” she snapped, “who is saying that she would release this to try to boost her standing with the president? Who has said that?”
Collins tried to cite Trump’s past criticism of Gabbard, but Leavitt didn’t flinch.
“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 constantly try to sow distrust and chaos amongst the president’s cabinet,” she said. “And it is not working.”
Collins tried to pivot yet again—bringing up Bill Barr and John Durham—but Leavitt shut it down with finality.
“I am with the president of the United States every day,” she said. “He has the utmost confidence in Director Gabbard. He always has, he continues to, and that is true of his entire cabinet, who are all working as one team to deliver on the promises this president made.”
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
Translation? The media’s games aren’t landing anymore. They’re still stuck playing 2017 while the Trump administration is busy exposing what really happened—and no amount of spin from CNN is going to cover it up.
The media tried—and failed—to bury the truth about the Russia collusion hoax once again. At PJ Media, we’re unafraid to show you the facts the press won’t cover. Become a PJ Media VIP member with promo code FIGHT for 60% off and unlock exclusive, ad-free access to honest conservative journalism. Don’t let the media’s lies win—join the fight for real news now.
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