'Not asking you to gossip!' Fed-up CNN host gets testy with Trump agency official

An exchange on CNN turned tense Monday when anchor Kasie Hunt pushed a State Department spokesperson for details on high-level talks between U.S. officials and El Salvador’s president, a question which the Trump administration official attributed to “gossip.”

The moment unfolded on CNN’s “The Arena” when Hunt pressed State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce on whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio had recently communicated with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. When she refused to confirm “what world leaders the secretary speaks to,” Hunt asked her question more directly.

“Is he still working on the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia?” she asked. When Bruce responded that she could not speak “to the nature of the work that he does every day,” Hunt pushed back, and triggered a curious reply.

“But you're the spokesperson for the state department!” Hunt said.

“Just a minute,” Bruce replied. “That doesn't mean that I’m the gossiper for the State Department,” she added.

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That’s when Hunt clarified her question: “I'm not asking you to gossip!”

Bruce went on to describe to Hunt “the nature of what it is that I can speak to,” without directly answering the CNN host’s question.

“We clearly know this is at the forefront for the State Department and the forefront for the secretary of state, but you're not going to get the nature of the details of negotiations, diplomacy, or the decisions the secretary makes during his day,” Bruce said.

Earlier in the interview, Bruce, a former conservative commentator, said Rubio had “boundless energy” as she maintained there was no conflict in Rubio’s expanding portfolio of jobs in the Trump administration.

“He has been very excited about the trust that the president has placed in him in general,” she said Monday. “And he's also not someone who's going to do something if he thinks he can't do it. I don't think there's much that he thinks he can't do.”

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