Kaitlan Collins Draws Sharp Rebuke Karoline Testy Exchange Over Portland National Guard Deployment

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt got short with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during a testy exchange at Monday afternoon’s briefing over whether President Donald Trump has the authority to deploy National Guard troops from Texas to Portland, Oregon.

The sparring session began with Collins observing that “A federal judge over the weekend that the president had appointed to the bench in his first term in office basically argued that he could not deploy other states’ National Guards to Portland, basically said that it was untethered, his argument, to what was actually happening on the ground,” before asking, “Which local officials in Portland have said that the National Guard is needed there, if any?”

“With all due respect to that judge, I think her opinion is untethered in reality and in the law,” replied Leavitt, who added, “We are appealing that decision, as you know we expect a hearing on it pretty quickly, and we’re very confident in the president’s legal authority to do this, and we are very confident we will win on the merits of the law.”