Sarah Matthews, a former White House deputy press secretary under President Donald Trump, expressed outrage over Trump's latest verbal assault on CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins during an Oval Office meeting on Wednesday. Trump labeled Collins a “corrupt reporter” and remarked that she never smiles, prompting Matthews to call the behavior “disgusting.”
Matthews Defends Collins
Speaking on Wednesday night's “NewsNight,” Matthews said, “It is disgusting to watch him tell a woman that she needs to smile while doing her job. I’ve seen Kaitlan smile plenty of times, but when she’s asking someone a hard-hitting question, I don’t think that that means that she has to smile while doing it. And he brings it up time and time again.”
Matthews, who served during Trump’s first administration, made these comments shortly after the president launched into a tirade against CNN and Collins while discussing his decision to drop the Justice Department's controversial $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” Trump’s attack on Collins came without provocation, as she had not yet asked a question. He singled her out in front of the press gaggle, slamming her and her network.
Trump's Remarks
“CNN’s a very corrupt organization, but with a corrupt reporter standing right there, never smiles. She never — a young, beautiful woman, never smiles. I never see a smile off her face,” Trump said. “I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes, like she has hatred, because we have borders, because we have a strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted.”
Later, after Collins pressed him on the fund, Trump told her to “be quiet” and said she should “be ashamed of herself.” This incident is just one of several attacks Trump has made against Collins.
Collins Responds
Collins addressed the incident later that night, stating that the president appeared “clearly irritated” by questions on the topic. Matthews told “NewsNight” host Abby Phillip that Trump targets Collins “more ferociously than any other reporter in that room” because “she’s the best at what she does.”
“I will say that during my time working as deputy press secretary in the first Trump administration, Kaitlan Collins was the one reporter that scared Kayleigh McEnany and President Trump the most,” Matthews said. “There would be times where Kayleigh McEnany wouldn’t even call on Kaitlan Collins at press conferences, at press briefings, because she didn’t want to answer the questions, because Kaitlan Collins is a very, very good reporter,” she continued.
Broader Pattern of Behavior
Matthews also condemned Trump’s overall treatment of female journalists, recalling an incident on Air Force One where he told Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey, “Quiet, piggy.” She expressed hope that such behavior would not be normalized. “So I wish that this wasn’t normalized, and that we weren’t desensitized to this type of behavior from the president, but it really is appalling, and I just want to give kudos to Kaitlan Collins,” Matthews concluded.
