CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Monday capped a montage of top officials in Donald Trump’s administration confidently blaming vandals for damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — before, that is, the Justice Department concluded it was the result of botched installation — with a biting punchline.
In the video, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the vandalism “very real” and not “an imaginary problem.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum declared “there was vandalism,” with “people literally trying to destroy part of a monument.”
And U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who has since drawn Trump’s ire after her office moved to drop the criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn for alleged vandalism of the pool, argued:
“Not only is it vandalism that is reflected in today’s indictment, but there is a cutting of the liner of the pool at the base of the pool for several yards across the pool, and someone was intent on doing incredible damage to the pool.”
Collins then delivered the zinger:
“Apparently, that was the contractor hired by the Department of Interior.”