Donald Trump said Sunday that CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was “not exactly Barbara Walters” at City Hall last week.
The former president’s scathing reference to pioneering TV journalist Walters, who died in late 2022, reinforced his Jekyll and Hyde respect for Collins, who hosted his first CNN on-air appearance in years.
He called her a “bad person” when she pressed for an answer, but later told her she did a “good job.”
In between, he interrupted Collins, yelled lies about the 2020 election, dodged questions, rolled over fact checks, and remained hostile.
Am Truth Social SundayHe referred to the criticism that CNN and its CEO Chris Licht had received for handling the event.
“It’s really amazing to see the CNN boss get all berated for asking me to do a so called Town Hall,” he wrote. “To be honest, no one had any trouble with what they wanted to do until they quickly realized after the show started that Ms. Collins wasn’t exactly Barbara Walters, or anything remotely like her. That’s when the problems of the radical left began.”
Trump then took action against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.), who joined the chorus of disapproval at CNN for giving Trump such a platform.
“The neurotic little AOC with the bad looking boyfriend has gone insane,” he said. “‘He owns CNN, he’s on her mind,’ they yelled. CNN, take the GREAT REVIEWS!”
Collins defended himself and the network last week.
“The 70 minutes I spent onstage in New Hampshire with former President Donald Trump was a major turning point in the Republican Party’s search for its nominee and potentially kickstarted America’s next presidential election,” she said. “It’s important to remember that he’s currently the front runner in the GOP, a race which, as mentioned, he’s leading while he’s been criminally charged, faced civil liability for everything, and is under investigation, beginning from handling secret documents to his business empire. ”
