CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins once defended then-President Donald Trump’s attacks on the press and took swipes at CNN — while being interviewed by Tucker Carlson on Fox News!
Collins moderated a CNN town hall at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire Wednesday night that devolved into a chaotic spectacle of attacks, falsehoods, and abuse that sparked a barrage of criticism and recriminations at the network.
She prepped for that role by spending years as a White House correspondent who distinguished herself as one of the toughest and most adversarial reporters during much of the Trump era.
But it wasn’t always like that. Collins got her start on the White House beat writing for the Tucker Carlson-founded conservative site The Daily Caller and was promoted to White House correspondent in January of 2017.
In a March 17, 2017 appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Collins defended Trump’s attacks on the press, took some shots at CNN, and trashed her colleagues for their reactions to Trump’s criticism:
KAITLAN COLLINS: 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.
TUCKER CARLSON: So you show up there right after the inauguration. You haven’t covered the White House before. You don’t work at the Boston Globe or The New York Times. What kind of reception did you get?
KAITLAN COLLINS: It’s definitely a little tense, but I’m not really there to impress them. I’m there to ask the questions my readers want answered, and I’m not there to ask what they want me to ask. I don’t get the questions that CNN wants. I don’t get the questions that MSNBC. I ask what my readers want me to ask because outside in the real world where the other 300 million people live, they don’t care about, you know, personnel issues that MSNBC is asking.
TUCKER CARLSON: So you actually took some heat from other reporters when you at a press conference at the moment when Mike Flynn was having all his troubles. National security adviser you asked a question up to the podium about what the foreign policy challenges facing the country are. And what was your response to that?
KAITLAN COLLINS: It was very heated. I got a lot of criticism on Twitter. A lot of people came up to me and asked if the White House told me what to ask, which is offensive. And I asked a big picture question about national security and who we’re going to get into a war with next. And that matters more to real people than a personal question of who’s working in the White House. No one will remember Mike Flynn’s name by next year.
TUCKER CARLSON: I think that’s totally fair. You’re obviously pretty immune to the criticism of your peers, but what effect does it have that kind of groupthink or that enforced conformity on other reporters there?
KAITLAN COLLINS: It’s definitely not a good mix for that, because then other people, other people feel pressured to ask what everyone else is asking. They look up to someone on their left and they’re asking about wiretapping, so they ask about wiretapping as well. But the point of 75 reporters being in that briefing room is that we all ask different questions. If we all go in there and ask the same question ten different ways, what does that accomplish? Who does that serve?
TUCKER CARLSON: So the president has attacked the press intensely like no other president’s ever going after the press like this. What does that do to the reporters covering the briefing every day?
KAITLAN COLLINS: People are a little hysterical about his criticism. Yes, he hates the press. Yes, he’s very vocal about it. 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. 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.
TUCKER CARLSON: So you think that there’s there’s a personal element to this they don’t like?
KAITLAN COLLINS: Definitely.
TUCKER CARLSON: Because he criticizes…
KAITLAN COLLINS: Because he 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.
TUCKER CARLSON: No, that’s exactly, that’s exactly right. Twitter seems to play a huge role in the attitudes of White House reporters.
KAITLAN COLLINS: It does. It feeds their egos. They like to know how many people follow them, who’s praising them. But should it, not pay attention to anything anyone says on the internet though.
TUCKER CARLSON: Pathetic? Do you see people checking Twitter in the briefing constantly?
KAITLAN COLLINS: Everyone’s updating it constantly. They’re tweeting. It’s a big part of it, but that’s understandable. The president uses Twitter a lot. It’s a new medium that everyone is really fascinated with, with Donald Trump being in the White House.
Watch above via Tucker Carlson Tonight.
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