Name: "Everyone Has Been Sending Pictures Of Me Smiling" - Kaitlan Collins After Being Attacked By Trump
Uploaded: 2026-02-18T17:07:41.000Z
Duration: 7 min 47 s
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My first guest is the chief White House correspondent and anchor of the Source with Kaitlan Collins on cnn.

Please welcome back to the Late Show, Kaitlan Coll.

It's almost like covering a day at the White House.

Like, you never know what's gonna happen next.

No, I want to get into that in just a moment, but

But since the last time we spoke, you're now doing double duty at cnc.

I got a second job since that was last year.

You are chief White House correspondent and of the Source at the same time.

What's it like covering the White House these days?

Because you did the first Trump term, then you had sort of the interim period of the Biden years.

The White House has done a lot of turnover.

And who the press corps is in the White House.

And I'm just curious, what's the vibe like for an average press conference there?

It's so different and so similar at the same time.

Covering the Trump White House was the first White House I had ever covered.

And so a lot of people had been there for decades, and, you know, they were kind of used to how different presidencies operated, Republican or Democrat.

And like, the first Trump White House was like, it totally blew all of that up.

And so it's familiar to that still in the same.

But it's like it is like a second season of a television show.

Like, it's like different characters and different plot lines, except it's real and it's the president and it's the White House.

I really enjoy doing that and being there every single day.

And it's meaningful to me to be back at the White House because I love the White House press corps.

other than that, it's great free time when you're older.

Now, during Trump's first administration, one of the sort of positions that CNN marked out for themselves was just acknowledging reality because there was this part of this expression.

It was, you know, part of the expression.

There was this epistemological crisis in government where what is real, what is not, can things be known and There were those this is an Apple ads that CNN ran which is like this is an apple.

People might say it's a banana, but it's an apple.

What's the attitude over there at CNN about the renewed challenge of keeping your feet on the dry land of what really is?

Well, and those ads came out when we were in an era of alternative facts.

And you know, people were adjusting to statements like that coming from some of the highest ranking officials in the White House.

And I think the mission is still the same though, which is because the alternative facts haven't changed.

There were still, there are still just facts and alternative facts and we get all of them, but

So I think the mission though is the same.

I think it's holding people, powerful people, taxpayer funded officials to account.

It's asking tough questions, it's covering the stories, it's making people uncomfortable.

And I think that that should happen whether it's a Republican in the White House or a Democrat.

I think anyone who's in that should face tough questions.

And so I think the mission is the same for my colleagues and for myself, certainly, absolutely.

But it's not even tough questions sometimes.

It's just a perfectly reasonable question.

For instance, two weeks ago, there was a moment between you and the President.

What would you say to the survivors who feel like they haven't gotten justice?

CNN has no ratings because of people like you.

Well, I'm asking you about survivors of Jeffrey Hustle.

You're not smiling because you know you're not telling the truth and you're, you're a very dishonest organization and they should be ashamed of you.

Now, you have covered the president, you've covered the president for 10 years, as you said.

So you like, you know, did that one surprise you?

I mean, the president has called me a lot of names.

He's gone after me and tried to deflect from the questions that we're asking.

But in that moment, you know, he is someone who is often politically savvy or tied in with what his base wants in that moment.

I was thinking, you know, if he had said that to, in response to a different question, I think it would have had a different reaction.

I mean, I don't think any woman, I think a lot of women can identify with that moment and that feeling.

But I think it was actually the question that is what gener so many headlines out of that?

Because my question was about sexual assault survivors and it wasn't even accusatory of the President.

It was what these women, many of whom I've interviewed and had on my show, often have said to me.

And I don't think it's a controversial opinion that you shouldn't smile when you're asking questions about a sex trafficker and sexual assault victims.

I will say though, that ever since that everyone has been sending me pictures of me smiling.

Like if it's selfies I've taken with someone or like my dad was sending me pictures of me smiling as like a 10 year old.

Like it's like I've been inundated with photos showing that I do indeed smile when it's appropriate.

Back in November, the President suggested that FCC chair Brennan CARR look into ABC's broadcasting license after Mary Bruce asked questions that he didn't like.

And as a journalist, what do you make of Trump's apparent weaponizing of the fcc?

I think it's something that the President, we didn't see him do as much in his first term.