A tense White House press briefing turned combative Wednesday when Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt directly confronted CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins during a heated exchange about media coverage of U.S. military casualties following recent strikes on Iran.

The clash came during the first press briefing since the United States and Israel launched military strikes against Iran five days earlier. The escalating conflict has already claimed the lives of six American service members stationed in the region.

Collins pressed Leavitt on criticism that members of the Trump administration had leveled at the media for prominently covering those troop deaths.

“Is it the position of this administration that the press should not prominently cover the deaths of U.S. service members?” Collins asked during the briefing.

Leavitt immediately pushed back, reframing the issue as one of media bias.

“No,” she said. “It’s the position of this administration that the press in this room and the press across this country should report on the success of Operation Epic Fury and the damage it is doing to the rogue Iranian regime.”

The press secretary continued by arguing that the Iranian government poses a direct threat to Americans and that the military operation was aimed at protecting lives.

“If the Iranian regime had their choice, they would kill every single person in this room,” Leavitt said. “So we can all be very grateful that we have an administration and men and women in our armed forces willing to sacrifice their own lives for the rest of us.”

But the exchange escalated when Collins referenced remarks made earlier in the day by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who had criticized media coverage surrounding the deaths of U.S. service members.

“But Secretary Hegseth was complaining that it was front-page news about these six service members who were killed,” Collins said.

Leavitt quickly rejected that characterization.

“That’s not what the secretary said, and that’s not what he meant, and you know it,” she replied, visibly frustrated. “You are being disingenuous.”

The two continued to talk over each other as Collins read directly from Hegseth’s earlier statement.

Leavitt then broadened her criticism beyond Collins to CNN and the national press corps more broadly.

“The press only wants to make the president look bad,” she said. “Especially you, and especially CNN.”

She accused the network of ignoring positive coverage of Defense Department leadership and the administration’s interactions with military personnel.

“The secretary of defense cares deeply about our warfighters and our men and women in uniform,” Leavitt said. “He travels all across this country to meet with them, to connect with them, and your network has hardly ever probably reported on that.”

Collins pushed back against the suggestion that reporting on fallen troops was intended to undermine the president.

“That’s not making the president look bad,” she responded. “That’s showcasing that.”

Leavitt countered that President Donald Trump would attend the dignified transfer ceremony for the slain service members and said the White House expected the media to cover that event.

“We expect you to cover that as you should,” she told Collins.

However, she continued to accuse CNN of framing administration actions negatively.

“You and your network know that you take every single thing this administration says and try to use it to make the president look bad,” Leavitt said. “That is an objective fact.”

Collins rejected that claim.

“I don’t think covering troop deaths is trying to make the president look bad,” she said.