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US President Donald Trump has leveled strong accusations against CNN and especially against the American news network's Pentagon correspondent, Natasha Bertrand.
Through a post on the Truth Social platform, the American president yesterday accused the 33-year-old journalist of spreading "fake news" and demanded that she be fired "like a dog."
According to him, the report by CNN and other American media outlets regarding the limited effectiveness of American bombings on Iran's nuclear facilities was fabricated and defamatory of the American pilots who participated in the operation, as it "made them look like failures, while they did an excellent job."
"People like Bertrand have destroyed the reputation of a once-great network," the US president said in his post, adding that the journalist does not even have the required qualifications to be a correspondent.
CNN was the first to report a top-secret preliminary assessment of the results of the US operation in Iran, which was made public by its sources. According to it, the bombing did not completely destroy Iran's underground facilities and simply delayed the country's nuclear program by several months.
Following CNN, many other media outlets, including the New York Times, Associated Press, Reuters and NBC News, published similar reports. Since then, Trump has repeatedly accused the press of spreading fake news and defaming military personnel who participated in the “total destruction” of nuclear facilities.
Following Trump's tweet yesterday, CNN issued a statement saying it "100% supports Natasha Bertrand's reporting" on Iran.
"CNN's reporting made clear that this was an initial assessment, which could change as new information becomes available. We have addressed President Trump's own skepticism on this issue at length. However, we do not consider the criticism of CNN journalists justified for accurately reporting the existence of this assessment and accurately describing its findings, which are clearly a matter of public concern," CNN's statement said.
Who is Natasha Bertrand?
According to her biography on CNN's website, Natasha Bertrand is a national security correspondent for the network, based in Washington.
“Natasha Bertrand has covered high-profile cases, including Israel’s widespread use of bombs in Gaza and coverage of the hospitalization of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
She played a key role in uncovering the missing Russian intelligence dossier during the Trump administration and was part of the Emmy Award-winning team that covered the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” her biography says.
In the past, Bertrand has covered national security and politics for other media outlets, including POLITICO, The Atlantic, and Business Insider.
She graduated from Vassar College in 2014 with a double major in political science and philosophy.
While working at Business Insider, she was criticized for her reporting on the so-called “Steele dossier,” which contained allegations of Trump’s ties to Russia. In particular, the journalist was accused of giving too much credibility to the dossier, the contents of which were never verified.
However, journalism was also criticized for several other controversial reports regarding the "leak" of emails allegedly written by Hunter Biden, the son of former US President Joe Biden.
It was Bertrand who broke the news that more than 50 former intelligence officials signed a letter expressing the opinion that the emails "had all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation operation."
Subsequent reports from the New York Times and the Washington Post confirmed the authenticity of some of the emails found on the laptop, which had been in the FBI's possession since 2019.
While the FBI has not issued a public statement explicitly confirming the authenticity of the laptop or ruling out the possibility of foreign interference, no evidence has emerged to support the claim that the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
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