Years before she became CNN’s “it” girl, Kaitlin Collins held vastly different views about the media and President Donald Trump, whom she moderated at a controversial town hall event last week.
According to Mediaite, Collins previously worked for the right-leaning Daily Caller during the tenure of the organization’s founder and former Fox News personality, Tucker Carlson.
During a March 2017 interview on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” just two months into Trump’s presidency, Collins provided an alternative perspective on the Trump White House.
“The press is throwing a royal tantrum because they can’t control what the country is talking about. For the last eight years, they’ve all decided what the question should be, and they’ve all gone in there and asked the same question. And now that they’re not being called on, they can’t control what the news is about, and it’s driving them crazy,” she said.
She added that the media were “a little hysterical” due to the then-president’s frequent references to “fake news”
“But what president has not hated the press? We make their lives harder, and they all hate us. They may not all talk about it, but they definitely hate us. So but people are taking it really personally. And you shouldn’t take the president’s criticism personally. It shouldn’t affect your reporting,” she said then.
WATCH:
Kaitlan Collins Once Defended Trump’s Attacks On Press — Including CNN — In Interview With Tucker Carlson!
It looks like she will say whatever the highest bidder asks her to say or maybe she's just been corrupted by spending too much time on CNN.
However, it is revealing to… pic.twitter.com/JylEdIrKwB
— 𝘿𝙤𝙣 𝙋𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙧 (@DonGP4037) May 15, 2023
“But you can tell when you read The New York Times and CNN that it does affect their reporting, and that’s not what should happen. I don’t take my cues from the president, I report on him. I don’t report to him,” Collins told Carlson.
Collins went on to say that the White House mainstream media stars were ticked off because Trump “calls them up by their names, and they don’t like that. And then they get a lot of hate on Twitter, and then it makes them resent him, not for his policies and not for not following through on his campaign promises, but for who he is as a person. And that’s not your job. Your job is not to get your feelings hurt.”
Collins added, in reference to the White House Press Corps, that Twitter “feeds their egos.” They enjoy knowing how many followers they have and who is praising them.
Collins, a 30-year-old journalist and new CNN presenter, was criticized by some of her own colleagues for allegedly failing to “control” Trump during the town hall, but she defended the event.
“About last night: the 70 minutes I spent on stage in New Hampshire with former President Donald Trump was a major inflection point in the Republican party’s search for its nominee, and potentially the starting line for America’s next presidential race,” Collins said.
“It’s important to remember that he is, right now, the GOP front-runner, that he is running, as noted, while being criminally indicted, found civilly liable and under investigation for everything from his handling of classified documents to his business empire,” she added.
Here are a few examples of Trump firing back at Collins and energizing the audience during the town hall meeting:
Trump SLAMS CNN host to her face:
"You're a nasty person."pic.twitter.com/JGYM89KRjP
— Patriot Alerts (@alerts___) May 11, 2023
President Trump on open borders Democrats 🔥🔥
"These people are sick. Anybody that wants this to happen to our country, they’re destroying our country, and this should not be allowed to happen."pic.twitter.com/5e1I1nKmt5
— Patriot Alerts (@alerts___) May 11, 2023
Trump gets a standing ovation from a New Hampshire crowd live on CNN.pic.twitter.com/GrYmfoHUOz
— Patriot Alerts (@alerts___) May 11, 2023
Donald Trump says he will pardon a “large portion” of J6 protesterspic.twitter.com/eR8ijniuDU
— Patriot Alerts (@alerts___) May 11, 2023
Donald Trump pulls out his own receipts on CNN:
“Let me pull it out” 🤣pic.twitter.com/K1WLB9FgvF
— Patriot Alerts (@alerts___) May 11, 2023
However, the criticism has persisted. According to ABC News, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who is not a Trump ally, also launched verbal attacks against the town hall.
More on this story via Conservative Brief:
“As to the audience reaction, let’s face it, CNN went in the tank to get Trump on there. They allowed him to negotiate who was going to be in that audience, and those were all Trump supporters. I don’t care how they introduced them,” he said. CONTINUE READING…
