President Donald Trump berated CBS News White House correspondent Nancy Cordes on Thanksgiving Day, asking her, “Are you stupid?” after she questioned him about the vetting of an Afghan man accused in a deadly shooting near the White House.
Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, Nov. 27, Trump was asked about the Nov. 26 Washington, D.C., attack that left one National Guard member dead and another seriously injured.
Authorities say Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan national, drove from his home in Washington state to the nation’s capital, where he allegedly shot the two service members just blocks from the White House.
West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from her injuries, while National Guard Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was critically wounded.
Lakanwal was quickly taken into custody and now faces multiple charges, including first-degree murder, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro announced on Fox & Friends on Friday, Nov. 28.
At Thursday’s press conference, Cordes pressed Trump about the suspect’s past work with the CIA as a member of a “partner force” in Afghanistan, according to CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
“U.S. officials say the suspect worked very closely with the CIA in Afghanistan for years and he was vetted and the vetting came up clean,” Cordes said.
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Trump responded, “He went cuckoo. He went nuts and that happens too, it happens too often with these people.”
Holding up a photo of Afghans crowded onto an airplane, he continued, “Look, this is how they come in. They’re standing on top of each other. There was no vetting or anything. They came in unvetted. And we have a lot of others in this country and we’re going to get them out. But they go cuckoo. Something happens to them.”
Lakanwal was among hundreds of Afghans brought into the U.S. under the Biden administration’s “Operation Allies Welcome” program in 2021, during the withdrawal from Kabul.
Trump’s tone sharpened when Cordes challenged his claim that the Afghans had not been properly screened.
“Your DOJ IG just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS and by the FBI of these Afghans who were brought into the U.S., so why do you blame the Biden administration?” she asked.
“Because they let ’em in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” Trump shot back.
“Because they came in on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here, and you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person,” he continued.
Trump went on to insist the arrivals were “unvetted” and “unchecked,” adding, “They came in on big planes, and it was disgraceful.” Once they are in the country, he argued, “it’s almost impossible” to make people leave.
Questioning Cordes’ intelligence was the latest in a series of personal attacks Trump has aimed at female journalists covering his administration.
On Nov. 26, Trump targeted The New York Times reporter Katie Rogers in a lengthy social media post, calling her “ugly, both inside and out” after the newspaper reported on how his age appears to be affecting his schedule in his second term.
Less than two weeks earlier, he snapped at Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey when she asked whether there was anything incriminating in the Epstein emails, pointing at her and saying, “Quiet. Quiet, Piggy.”
He also labeled ABC News’ Mary Bruce “a terrible person and a terrible reporter” when she raised similar questions about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein during a Nov. 18 press conference.
The White House has continued to defend Trump amid backlash over his rhetoric.
On Nov. 20, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt argued that the president’s bluntness with reporters is, in her view, more “respectful” than avoiding questions.
“Look, the president is very frank & honest with everyone in this room,” she told reporters. “You’ve all seen it yourselves. You’ve all experienced it yourselves. And I think it’s one of the many reasons the American people reelected this president, because of his frankness.”
After Trump called Rogers “ugly,” a White House spokesperson offered a similar defense, saying, “President Trump has never been politically correct, never holds back, and in large part, the American people re-elected him for his transparency.”
“This has nothing to do with gender,” the spokesperson added. “It has everything to do with the fact that the President’s and the public’s trust in the media is at all time lows.”
