President Trump on Wednesday called for the firing of CNN correspondent Natasha Bertrand, who reported on air that an internal U.S. intelligence assessment found Saturday’s strikes on Iranian nuclear sites set back Tehran’s nuclear program by only a few months.
“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,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Bertrand, the president argued, was “attempting to destroy our Patriot Pilots by making them look bad.”
Trump said earlier Wednesday that the preliminary classified U.S. report wasn’t complete, while members of his administration vowed to investigate the leaked assessment, which was also reported on by The New York Times, The Washington Post and others.
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But the president took particular issue with Bertrand’s reporting, writing in his social media post that “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,” he continued. “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!”
Despite the internal report, Trump and his administration have doubled down on earlier rhetoric suggesting the nuclear enrichment sites were “totally destroyed” in the strikes, while pushing Israel’s assessment that the attacks would delay the nuclear program by at least a few years.
In a statement to The Hill on Wednesday, CNN said it “stands 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,” a network spokesperson said. “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,” they added.
