CNN’s Dana Bash interrupts Trump’s Oval Office presser to tell viewers the network ‘does not hate our country’

CNN anchor Dana Bash interrupted live coverage of President Donald Trump’s Oval Office appearance Monday to push back against his claims that journalists at the Warner Bros. Discover-owned network “hate our country.”

“I just want to say for the record, since we heard President Trump say in the Oval Office that CNN hates our country — CNN does not hate our country,” Bash told viewers after Trump made the remark in the Oval Office on Monday.

“That should go without saying.”

Bash added: “I’ve been here for 32 years and I see a rhetorical device in him trying to say such a thing.”

Bash cut into live coverage of Trump’s Oval Office appearance Monday after the president launched a barrage of attacks on CNN and reporter Kaitlan Collins during a contentious exchange about the fate of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Salvadoran man a US court ruled was wrongly deported.

The exchange occurred during a meeting between Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele.

When Collins attempted to ask about Abrego Garcia — who remains imprisoned in El Salvador despite a Supreme Court decision ordering the US to facilitate his return — Trump opened with a mocking jab: “Let’s hear the question from this very low-rated anchor at CB— at CNN. Low-rated!”

Collins asked: “Do you plan to ask President Bukele to help return the man who your administration says was mistakenly deported to El Salvador?”

Rather than respond directly, Trump passed the floor to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

After both officials spoke, Trump interjected only to claim, “CNN is totally slanting because they don’t know what’s happening. That’s why nobody’s watching them.”

Collins pressed again, repeating her question and turning directly to Bukele to ask if he would send Abrego Garcia back.

Bukele responded by saying he wouldn’t “smuggle a terrorist into the United States,” prompting Trump to add, “They’d love to have a criminal, you know, released into our country. They would love it. They’re —these are sick people.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Miller continued to scold Collins, but she reminded the room that Trump had previously said he would follow court orders requiring wrongly deported individuals to be returned.

“Why don’t you just say, ‘Isn’t it wonderful that we’re keeping criminals out of our country?’” Trump shot back.

“Why can’t you say that? Why do you go over and over, and that’s why nobody watches you anymore, you know, you have no credibility.”

With the exchange escalating, CNN’s “Inside Politics” cut away from the Oval Office feed.

Bash quickly addressed the moment: “Okay, we have been listening to a lengthy live press conference inside the Oval Office with the leader of El Salvador, Bukele, where we have heard a lot of bits of information, a lot of news nuggets that we want to definitely focus on — a lot of some misinformation as well.”

Before turning to her panel, Bash pushed back against Trump’s broader accusation, insisting: “CNN does not hate our country. That should go without saying.”