‘Has Not Had Any Wins In Several Years’: CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Abby Phillip Roast Trump’s Cheerful Victory Speech

CNN anchors Abby Phillip and Kaitlan Collins roasted former President Donald Trump’s uncharacteristically genial victory speech by observing he hasn’t won anything in a long time and he’s maybe jumping the gun on projecting inevitability.

Monday marked the first nominating contest in the Republican presidential primary, the influential (if not representative) Iowa caucuses. The race was called for Trump within 30 minutes, leaving cable personalities to banter about politics and wait for victory and concession speeches.

Phillip and Collins were part of CNN’s Iowa Caucuses coverage Monday night and gave their takes just moments after Jake Tapper deep-sixed Trump’s speech when he began to rant about immigrants.

Collins said Trump’s relatively sunny speech was due to the fact that he hasn’t had much to celebrate the last few years, and Phillip observed with a laugh that it might be a bit early for this, but Trump is “sending a signal to his party, this thing is over”:

ERIN BURNETT: Jake, you know, interesting. We understand, at least Kristen said, they got rid of the teleprompter right before he was starting to speak. And then, as Jake emphasized, very uncharacteristic. You don’t want to read too much into it, but clearly, he got the message. That this is when he was saying, Kaitlan, you know, come together, praising his rivals, that was what he wanted people to hear in this moment.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Yes, it shows how confident he feels coming off of this win. I mean, I haven’t heard Donald Trump give a speech like that probably in eight years, and I’ve been to a lot of Donald Trump’s speeches. I mean, he hasn’t called Ron DeSantis Ron since Ron DeSantis entered the presidential race.

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: But Ron DeSantimonious.

COLLINS: He has only called him by nicknames and called him disloyal. And to see him give that speech, I think, speaks to how he feels after this victory tonight. But I also think this is a speech that he’s giving after he has not had any wins in several years.

I mean, he lost the 2020 election. He’s facing 91 criminal counts. He’s going to be in a New York courtroom tomorrow for a trial where a jury will determine how much he owes the columnist, E. Jean Carroll, for defaming her, something that they’ve already decided. They’re not deciding that. They’re deciding how much he owes her.

And I think that is what is fueling that attitude that you saw there where he was speaking graciously of his opponents, clearly calling on them to drop out of the race and talking about this notion of uniting the country, which struck me given obviously how polarized the country is at this moment and this idea of uniting liberals and conservatives in that speech.

But I think it’s also because he has not had a win like that in so long. I mean, he’s only dealing with criminal charges and civil suits and trials.

ABBY PHILLIP: But he’s trying to keep a sense of inevitability about this. I mean, (laughs) this is the kind of speech you would expect to hear from a candidate after Super Tuesday. If they’ve won, you know, five or six states and they’re rolling to the nomination, this is the very first contest, —

COLLINS: Right, right.

PHILLIP: — the first one. And he was sending all kinds of signals to Capitol Hill, to his rivals. He, just two days ago was attacking Vivek Ramaswamy tonight, he was praising him, he was using Ron DeSantis’ actual name.

I mean, he’s sending a signal to his party, this thing is over, and he wants them to get on board. We’ll see what happens. But that was the signal that was unmistakable to me as he heads into this next week going into New Hampshire.

Watch above via CNN’s Iowa caucuses coverage.