White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt laid the smackdown on the mainstream media when she was questioned at a White House press briefing by CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins.

It came after Collins questioned the reason the Associated Press had been barred from the press briefing room after declining to refer to the body of water between Florida and Mexico as the Gulf of America.

“Which White House official made the decision to bar the AP reporter from the Oval Office and the Diplomatic Reception Room last night?” the CNN anchor said.

“Well, first of all, let me just set the record straight. It is a privilege to cover this White House. It’s a privilege to be the White House Press Secretary. And nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the President of the United States questions. That’s an invitation that is given. And there are hundreds of outlets on this campus,” the White House press secretary said.

“Many of you in this room who don’t have the privilege of being part of that pool every single day and getting to ask the President questions. We reserve the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office. And you all have credentials to be here, including the Associated Press, who is in this briefing room today,” she said.

But Collins persisted.

“But isn’t it retaliatory in nature, is the argument, because the reason that the AP was barred, which they said was because they’re not using the phrase Gulf of America, they’re using Gulf of Mexico in line with their standards. And so the question here is, is this setting a that this White House will retaliate against reporters who don’t use the language that you guys believe reporters should use? And how does that align with the First Amendment commitment that you were just talking about?” she said.

“I was very upfront in my briefing on day one, that if we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable. And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America. And I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that,” the White House press secretary said.

“But that is what it is. The Secretary of Interior has made that the official designation in the Geographical Identification Name Server. And Apple has recognized that. Google has recognized that. Pretty much every other outlet in this room has recognized that body of water as the Gulf of America. And it’s very important to this administration that we get that right, not just for people here at home, but also for the rest of the world,” she said.