Overview
- President Trump singled out Kaitlan Collins at a White House press conference on Wednesday, June 3, calling CNN “a very corrupt organization” and saying Collins had “hatred in her eyes.”
- Collins remained composed during the exchange and answered afterward, telling the president, “I'm still from Alabama,” when he said she used to be a conservative from the state.
- Collins did not anchor her CNN program on Friday, June 5, because she was in New York City conducting an onstage interview with Sean Penn at the Tribeca Film Festival while Dana Bash guest-hosted.
- Sean Penn publicly praised Collins’ reporting integrity at the Tribeca event and a CNN spokesperson issued a statement calling her an “exceptional journalist” who reports from the White House with depth and tenacity.
- The June 3 confrontation shifted attention away from a separate policy issue that prompted the press session and continues a pattern of tense interactions between Collins and the president, including a February Oval Office clash over her not smiling.