President Donald Trump went after one of his least favorite Sunday show hosts and even asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to weigh in during a Daily Caller interview released Monday evening.
From the Oval Office, Trump argued that being pro-MAGA benefits media outlets. “People don’t realize how big our market is,” he said.
He first criticized former CBS Evening News host Norah O’Donnell, claiming “50 percent of the woman off the street” would have done a better job. Trump then turned his attention to CBS’ Margaret Brennan.
“The Face the Nation. The woman on Face the Nation is so bad,” he said without using Brennan’s name. When a reporter mistakenly brought up NBC’s Kristen Welker, Leavitt corrected her, identifying Brennan.
That prompted Trump to ask Leavitt’s opinion of the host. “She’s stupid. You can put that on the record,” Leavitt replied. “She’s nasty,” Trump added. “Yes,” Leavitt confirmed.
Trump pointed to Brennan’s mid-August interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where she suggested European leaders feared Trump might pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into an unfavorable peace deal following Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rubio dismissed the claim as a “stupid media narrative.”
The president praised Rubio, saying “he’s good and he’s smart,” but criticized the tone of the questioning. “The level of hatred. I’m surprised he goes on there, the level of hatred when they’re asking the question.”
Trump went on to say one of his own aides, Natalie Harp, could outperform Brennan. “She was an anchor. Do you know? For OAN,” he said, adding, “Natalie worked for OAN for a couple of years as an anchor. I’m telling you. She was a great anchor, but she didn’t want to, she wanted to come with Trump, and maybe this is better.”
Harp, nicknamed the “human printer” for carrying a portable printer to provide Trump with articles and posts, has been described in Alex Isenstadt’s book Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power as so devoted to Trump that aides jokingly compared her to Alex Forrest, Glenn Close’s character in Fatal Attraction.
A spokesperson for Face the Nation did not respond to a request for comment.
