U.S. President Donald Trump launched what many viewed as a “completely unwarranted” verbal attack on CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, despite the journalist not saying a word. The incident occurred on Wednesday while Trump was taking questions from reporters following the signing of a new executive order.
Trump's Rant
Trump sounded off on officials from the Biden and Obama administrations, as well as people involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots whose “lives were destroyed” after being investigated or convicted. “I’m one of them,” the president noted, apparently referring to the 2022 FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago home.
While answering a question about the now-defunct “anti-weaponization” fund, Trump singled out Collins from the crowd of reporters and redirected his rant toward her. “They’re crooked as hell,” Trump said of Collins’ employer, according to the Daily Beast. “CNN’s a very corrupt organization, with a corrupt reporter standing right there, never smiles,” Trump continued, gesturing toward CNN’s chief White House correspondent, despite the fact that she had not asked the question he was answering. “She never … a young beautiful woman (who) never smiles. I never see a smile on her face. I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes.”
Cooper's Defense
Anderson Cooper addressed the issue on his show, Anderson Cooper 360, saying Trump’s verbal attack on Collins was “completely unwarranted” given that she “did nothing to him ahead of it … at this point she was simply standing there doing her job.” The host continued: “That’s the president of the United States, a nearly 80-year-old man who has no problem commenting on her physical appearance and telling her she needs to smile.” Cooper added: “That doesn’t happen to men. No one‘s ever said that to me in an office setting. She was there, like every other journalist doing her job, standing around with a bunch of non-smiling men, by the way, all behind her … she gets singled out.”
Support from Former Trump Spokesperson
Sarah Matthews, a former spokesperson for Trump, also defended Collins against the president’s “misogynistic attacks.” Matthews appeared on CNN NewsNight on Wednesday, where she said Collins is “the best at what she does, and I think that’s why you see Trump go after her more ferociously than any other reporter in that room.” She added: “And 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, and it’s these misogynistic attacks, not just against Kaitlan.”
Previous Incidents
Cooper showed footage of a previous exchange between Trump and Collins in which he called her “the worst reporter” and said she is one of the reasons “CNN has no ratings.” When he scolded her, saying, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile,” Collins responded, “I’m asking you about survivors of Jeffrey Epstein.” During that same February briefing, Trump also called out Collins for “not smiling enough.” While showing off a new baseball cap emblazoned with the words “America is back,” he singled out Collins once again: “Look, CNN is thrilled,” the president said, before adding, “She never smiles. Someday I’ll see her smile.”
