CNN’s Kaitlan Collins expects President Trump to push back even more against Democrats if they sweep this year’s midterm elections, predicting, “It will be a very different Washington.”
Collins appeared as a guest on Friday’s episode of the “Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway” podcast. During her conversation with Swisher, Collins touched on the seemingly likely possibility that the Democrats reassert at least partial control over one branch of government in this year’s midterm elections. Assuming the Democratic Party does that, Collins revealed a surprising prediction about what the president’s response will be.
“He is going to be in a different world in terms of Washington, should the midterms not go his way. It will be a very different time for the Trump presidency,” Collins said. “I don’t think that they will handle congressional oversight the way they did the first time.”
Swisher said she believes Trump will try to find a way to “cooperate” with Democrats and “reinvent” himself as a bipartisan negotiator. She was surprised to learn that Collins thought the opposite, noting the potential for Democrat-controlled Senate and Congressional bodies to bring investigations and new impeachment charges against Trump.
“This is my prediction, this is what I’ve heard from reporting, it’s an educated prediction,” Collins said. “I think that the president hated being impeached so much, even though he expects it and thinks it’ll happen again this time. I think there will be way more pushback from the DOJ and from the White House, even than what we saw in the last time around.”
“I think it will be a very different Washington, should the Democrats win and should they try to conduct these investigations,” the CNN anchor added. “I don’t think it’s totally clear that we’ll actually see it the same way we saw the first time.”
Collins again replied in the affirmative when a stunned Swisher subsequently asked if she really believes Trump will just “dig in even more.”
“Oh, wow. Interesting because I think he’s gonna roll right over,” Swisher contended. “I’m not going to say what I think he is, but I think he’s a bully. He gets punched in the nose and he’s going to stop. I don’t know. Maybe not.”
Few reporters have had as many contentious, public confrontations with Trump over the course of his presidency than Collins. The CNN journalist has not only been on the receiving end of multiple jabs from the president but has also repeatedly questioned him in the White House over various issues and controversies throughout his second term.
You can watch Collins’ full interview above.
