Trump Press Sec Tirade Takes Truly Weird Turn as GOP Iran Angst Spikes

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2026

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at a reporter and accused the media of trying to make Donald Trump “look bad.” The occasion was a question about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who had previously accused the media of the same. What’s truly strange is how Leavitt flatly denied Hegseth had said what everyone heard him say, followed by an unhinged, extended tirade at reporters. Why the rage? Well, Republicans are growing anxious: Punchbowl News reports that they expressly don’t want to vote on the war to keep their distance from it, and many of them are straining to avoid even using the word “war.” We talked to New Republic deputy editor Tori Otten, who co-wrote a good piece with TNR’s Grace Segers dissecting White House social media strategy. We discuss the real sources of Leavitt’s anger, the importance of fantasy and unreality to MAGA politics, and why it's all actually working against Republicans. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:16.4	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
0:36.4	White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt is very, very angry at the media for reporting on the six American troops who have been killed in Donald Trump's war against Iran.
0:39.2	She says the press is trying to make Trump look bad, as if Trump isn't responsible for the fact that his war of choice is already
0:44.7	producing terrible outcomes. This comes amid clear signs that Republicans are growing nervous about
0:51.2	the politics of Trump's war. Right now, they're angling to avoid getting
0:55.7	too closely tied to it. We're talking about all this with Tori Otten, a deputy editor at the
1:01.8	New Republic who's been writing well about how Trump world is plainly trivializing matters of war,
1:07.2	which is making the politics worse for them. Tori, nice to have you on.
1:11.5	Oh, Greg.
1:12.1	I'm thrilled to be here.
1:13.9	So let's start with Caroline Levitt.
1:15.9	The background here is that Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth suggested this week that the media is making American troop deaths in Iran front page news to make Trump look bad.
1:27.3	Now listen to this exchange between Levit and CNN's
1:30.0	Caitlin Collins. Given what Secretary Hegseth said this morning, is it the position of this
1:35.1	administration that the press should not prominently cover the deaths of U.S. service members?
1:39.6	No, it's the position of this administration that the press in this room and the press across the country
1:45.0	should accurately report on the success of Operation Epic Fury and the damage it is doing to the
1:51.2	rogue Iranian regime that has threatened the lives of every single American in this room.
1:55.9	If the Iranian regime had their choice, they would kill every single person in this room.
2:00.2	And so we can all be very
2:01.1	grateful that we have an administration and that we have men and women in our armed forces
	...

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