'Almost ate a Slim Jim': CNN grills MAGA influencers taking over White House press corps

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has been fielding questions from fawning right-wing media personalities in her daily briefings, and CNN's Donie O'Sullivan went out to find them himself.

Former boxer and failed MAGA candidate Cara Castronuova, who works for MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's TV network, made news earlier this month by asking about President Donald Trump's "fitness plan" after his recent physical, and those puffballs questions have been typical of the unconventional reporters invited into the White House Briefing Room.

"To the people, and I'm sure you see this online every single day, who say you don't deserve to be here because you're not a real journalist, what's your response to them?" O'Sullivan asked Natalie Winters, who co-hosts Steve Bannon's War Room podcast.

Winters replied with a combativeness not shown during the briefings.

"Well, I'm pretty sure the group of people in there spent, what was it, four years, covering for someone who was, essentially, dead — and that's being charitable in my description of him — a president by the name of Joe Biden," Winters said. "So to all those people who are apoplectic over having new media voices, you guys failed and that's why we're here."

Winters told O'Sullivan that she sees her role as more of a watchdog on traditional media than a reporter herself, but some of the newly elevated reporters have found themselves as the subjects of news items themselves – such as Real America’s Voice correspondent Brian Glenn, who challenged Ukraine President Volodmyr Zelenskyy for not wearing a tie during an Oval Office meeting.

"I'm not a troll, never have been," Glenn told O'Sullivan about the confrontation. "That was a legitimate question that I just wanted to ask. I didn't mean to get everyone fired up like they did."

Winters insists her only bias is toward the "working class," and not the president, but admits she senses hostility from the other reporters.

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"I think they know better than to come after Natalie Winters and the 'War Room' posse," she told O'Sullivan, "but I see the looks, the eye rolls, the conversations that I overhear."

Castronuova said it's been a struggle to adjust to the demands of the job, and said she had to learn how to stay out of other networks' camera views during stand-ups,

"This is off-topic – the vending machine is full of junk food and I'm a big MAHA person," she said, referring to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Make American Healthy Again" agenda. "I almost ate a Slim Jim yesterday. I was desperate."

All the reporters assured O'Sullivan they would hold the president to account, but they seemed to have not had any disagreements just yet.

"I'm sure there will be things that happen that I don't agree with," Castronuova said, adding that she'd gone on record with some previous disagreements — but couldn't think of any to cite.

"Let me put some thought into that for a second. Um, I'm just overwhelmed with how I perceive things to be going."

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