Karoline Leavitt Goes Head to Head With Reporter, Claims President Trump Isn’t ‘Making Anything Up’

Things got tense between White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and a reporter when President Donald Trump’s conflicting statements came into question.

During a Tuesday, March 10, press briefing, CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes asked why the 79-year-old president has shifted his explanation and timeline regarding the war with Iran ever since Israel and the United States launched coordinated joint attacks on February 28.

“The president said yesterday for the first time that he had to strike Iran because he believes that Iran was going to strike U.S. targets within seven days,” Cordes began in her question to Leavitt. “He then bumped that down later to three days. Where is he getting that?”

Without directly answering the question, Leavitt, 28, said that the Apprentice alum chose to launch Operation Epic Fury “because he felt as though Iran was going to strike the United States and our assets in the region first.”

Referencing a prior press briefing, Leavitt said Trump’s “feeling” was “based on facts,” adding: “The Iranian regime was lying, deceiving the United States of America, clearly trying to continue their nuclear program to create a bomb that would of course threaten the United States of America.”

Trump, she continued, “was not going to sit back” and allow the threats “any longer.”

However, Cordes pressed on the timeline, asking: “There are no U.S. leaders or Israeli leaders who are making those same claims, so is he making this up to justify his decision to go to war now?”

Things got tense when Leavitt fired back: “The president is not making anything up, Nancy. He is looking at this every single day based on intelligence, based on facts.”

“Iran chose this path to death and destruction,” Leavitt said. “Iran wanted to attack the United States of America, and the president was not going to sit back and allow that to happen. And everyone in this room should be grateful for it.”

According to a statement from the White House, “In a bold and necessary exercise of American strength, President Donald J. Trump authorized Operation Epic Fury — a precise, overwhelming military campaign to eliminate the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime, destroy its ballistic missile arsenal, degrade its proxy terror networks, and cripple its naval forces.”

“This operation, executed in partnership with regional allies, follows exhaustive diplomatic efforts and comes after 47 years of Iranian aggression — including attacks on U.S. citizens, sponsorship of global terrorism, and brutal oppression of its own people,” the White House said.