Kaitlan Collins admitted she wasn’t surprised by Donald Trump’s attacks against her in his White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech, noting it “happens pretty regularly inside the Oval Office.”
During Monday’s episode of “The Daily Show,” the CNN host addressed the president’s insult-heavy WHCD speech, in which he compared her to trans actress and influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
“You know, I’ve covered Trump for 10 years. And so I’ve listened to pretty much all of his speeches for 10 years, with very little exception,” Collins told host Jon Stewart. “And so I actually think it’s helpful for other people to be able to listen to them in their entirety, which people really don’t that much these days.”
She continued: “I was not surprised when he insulted me, that happens pretty regularly inside the Oval Office. This is just a bigger venue where it was happening.”
However, Collins noted she was taken with the fact that the venue, which was filled with Trump’s allies and advisors, “was so quiet” during the president’s remarks.
When asked for her take on Trump’s fixation on her, Collins defended that she refuses to “only serve one audience or one political leaning” with her line of questions at the White House.
“I want anyone, from my family in Alabama to people in the White House to people in Washington, to be able to hear that answer or hear that question and think, ‘What is the answer to that?’” she said.
In response, Stewart quipped that the answer was “very clearly you should smile more.” Collins then gave a huge smile to the camera, prompting a round of applause from the audience.
Pivoting back to the topic at hand, Collins said “one of the best parts of the dinner was Wolf [Blitzer] reading the descriptions of the awards” in front of Trump, given many of the prizes were for coverage about his administration.
“In terms of my reaction, I’ve always felt this, regardless of who’s the president, whether it’s Joe Biden, Donald Trump– those are the two I’ve covered. It’s really not about me,” she explained. “And I don’t want it to be about my reaction. And so I think if you let it become about that, then it becomes a back and forth between the two of us. And instead, I think it’s more effective to remind people in those moments, when he is insulting me or when he is criticizing me, about the question I asked or the reporting that I did that he was so angry about in this moment.”
She concluded: “And the fact that I got an award for it really bothered him, clearly. And so I just think in those moments, it’s important to put the reminder back on the work, on the question, and on the non-answers that we get.”
Watch Collins’ comments above.
“The Daily Show” airs weeknights at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.
