Trump’s Fiery Verbal Sparring: Unleashing a Storm of Words on CNN’s Kaitlan Collins
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Donald Trump remarked on Sunday that CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was “not exactly Barbara Walters” during the town hall last week.
The former president’s dig at pioneering TV journalist Walters, who died at the end of 2022, continued his Jekyll-and-Hyde relationship with Collins, who moderated his first on-air appearance on CNN in years.
He referred to her as a “nasty person” when she pressed him for an answer to a question, but afterwards told her she did a “good job.”
Throughout, he interrupted Collins, regurgitated misinformation about the 2020 election, evaded questions, sped through fact-checks, and stayed belligerent.
On Truth Social Sunday, he mentioned the criticism directed at CNN and its CEO, Chris Licht, for their handling of the tragedy.
“It’s really amazing to watch the head of CNN get absolutely lambasted for asking me to do a so-called Town Hall,” he wrote. “In all fairness, nobody had any problems with what he wanted to do until after the show started, when they quickly realized that Ms. Collins was not exactly Barbara Walters, or even close. That’s when the trouble from the Radical Left started.”
Trump then went for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who had joined the chorus of opposition to CNN providing Trump with such a platform.
“Neurotic little AOC with the bad looking boyfriend, went crazy,” he said. “‘He owns CNN, he’s in their head,’ they screamed. CNN, take the GREAT RATINGS!”
Collins defended herself and the network last week.
“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,” she said. “It’s important to remember that he is, right now, the GOP frontrunner, a race 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.”
