US Politics
Kaitlan Collins attacks Trump’s ‘smile’ comment: ‘I think a lot of women can identify with that moment’
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CNN journalist Kaitlan Collins has said she believes President Donald Trump’s attack on her at the White House earlier this month struck a chord with many women who have felt patronized by men.
Collins was in the Oval Office on February 3, asking the commander-in-chief about the Jeffrey Epstein files, when Trump responded with his infamous comment.
“You are so bad,” the president told her. “You know, you are the worst reporter. No wonder… CNN has no ratings because of people like you.
“You know, she’s a young woman… I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile. I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face.”
Asked about the interaction by Stephen Colbert on CBS’s The Late Show – an interview she previewed on her own CNN show, The Source, Monday night – Collins said: “I don’t think it surprised me in the moment of the attack. The president has called me a lot of names, he’s gone after me, and tried to deflect from the questions that we’re asking.
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“He is someone who is often politically savvy or tied in with what his base wants. In that moment I was thinking, if he had said that in response to a different question, I think it would have had a different reaction.
She continued: “I think a lot of women can identify with that moment and that feeling. I think it was actually the question that is what generated so many headlines out of that.
“My question was about sexual assault survivors and it wasn’t even accusatory of the president. It was what these women, many of whom I’ve interviewed and had on my show, often have said to me.
“And I don’t think it’s a controversial opinion that you shouldn’t smile when you’re asking questions about a sex trafficker and sexual assault victims.”
Her answer earned cheers and applause from Colbert’s studio audience.
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The incident was only the latest of many in which Trump has lashed out at female members of the press corps, notoriously calling Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey “piggy,” describing Katie Rodgers of The New York Times as “a third-rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out” and declaring Weijia Jiang of CBS would be “incapable” of acing a cognitive test, as he claims to have done.
After a previous run-in with Collins in December, during which she had asked about the cost of his White House ballroom, he attacked her in a Truth Social post, calling her “always Stupid and Nasty.”
Collins also addressed the recent spat in a guest appearance on the Absolutely Not podcast last week, saying she had no reason to smile when asking the question, given the seriousness of its subject matter.
“It’s not a laughing matter, I don’t think, to talk about sex trafficking victims,” she said. “And I’ve interviewed a lot of these women who were underage girls at the time and their stories are powerful.
“It’s not about me. It’s not about me smiling and my expressions. It’s what these women think about what [Trump’s] administration has done. And so I think that’s why that moment resonated with so many people because just the issue at hand.”
