Long before she hosted a CNN town hall that has become controversial for allowing former President Donald Trump to dominate the airwaves for over an hour, CNN host Kaitlan Collins had some different slants on Trump and the media.
As noted by Mediaite, Collins once worked for The Daily Caller in the days when Tucker Carlson ran the operation, and in March 2017, she offered a different perspective on the Trump White House when she was interviewed by Carlson on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” At the time, Trump had been in office for two months.
“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,” she said.
WATCH: Kaitlan Collins Once Defended Trump’s Attacks On Press — Including CNN — In Interview With Tucker Carlson! https://t.co/XUUuKJRRN8 via @mediaite
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) May 13, 2023
She said media personalities were a “little hysterical” about being criticized by Trump.
“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,” she said then.
“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.”
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Collins said White House mainstream media stars were irked because Trump “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.”
In the 2017 interview, speaking of the White House press corps, she said Twitter “feeds their egos. They like to know how many people follow them, who’s praising them.”
Although Collins has been criticized for not controlling Trump during the town hall, she defended the session in comments posted by The Wrap.
“About last night: 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,” Collins said.
“It’s important to remember that he is, right now, the GOP front-runner, 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.”
But the criticism has continued unabated.
Former New Jersey Gov, Chris Christie, a Trump critic, attacked the town hall, according to ABC.
“As to the audience reaction, let’s face it, CNN went in the tank to get Trump on there. They allowed him to negotiate who was going to be in that audience, and those were all Trump supporters. I don’t care how they introduced them,” he said.
“You pay no attention to audience reaction. Those were all people who in the main 80 percent or so were Trump supporters. So, that was a negotiation deal that Trump did with CNN, and I think CNN was wrong for doing it.”
Not everyone agreed with Christie.
“I thought last night was a tremendous clear messaging from President Trump,” Republican real estate investor Steve Richard said, according to CBS. “I think that audience reflected that over and over again.”
Independent voter June Dickerson said Trump is “a very honorable man. He always said what was on his mind. He was always honest and forthright, and I don’t believe lies.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
