‘Nothing Short of Remarkable!’ CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Stunned by ‘Incredibly Heated’ Trump Meeting With Zelensky
CNN anchor and senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins was absolutely stunned by an “incredibly heated” meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky that devolved into a shouting match.
Trump and Zelensky met in the Oval Office Friday after weeks of tension over public comments between the two.
On Friday’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics, anchor Dana Bash tossed to Collins for a stunning report on the in-progress meeting minutes before the shocking video of the exchange was released:
DANA BASH: Welcome back. I want to go right to our chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins.
Kaitlan. As I come to you, I want to show our viewers the photo that you tweeted that you took in the Oval Office. And wow, does that show the tension that clearly erupted in that meeting.
This is a moment, and not the moment that Zelensky or any of the European leaders had hoped for with this meeting. What happened?
KAITLAN COLLINS: Dana that picture is not even the half of it! What just happened in the Oval Office is nothing short of remarkable!
It began with questions about a cease fire in Ukraine and security guarantees, and what the United States would be willing to do.
And it ended with an outright shouting match between President Zelensky, President Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
It was incredibly heated, and by the end of it, President Trump was absolutely fuming, saying he wasn’t quite sure how these negotiations were going to look going forward.
Vice President Vance was accusing President Zelensky of never saying thank you for the United States aid that has gone to Ukraine, saying that he had not said thank you once during that meeting that they were holding.
President Zelensky pushed back, was telling Vance that he should come to Ukraine and come and visit. And then President Trump himself got involved as well.
And I just want to read you some of the quotes, because everyone in the room was silent. No one was asking questions, listening as the three of them went back and forth.
Where President Trump was saying it was going to be very tough to negotiate going forward. He said that Putin “may have broken deals with President Obama and President Bush, but that he had not broken any deals with President Trump.”.
And that is why Trump was saying that he was confident that if they do come to a cease fire, that Russia will not violate it. And Trump said at one point, and I’m quoting now from my notes that I took to Zelensky, “I have empowered you to be a tough guy. You either make a deal or we are out,” he said “you don’t have the cards.”.
It was nothing short of just remarkable to see them going back and forth, yelling at each other inside the Oval Office in a moment that that I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed in my eight years covering the White House, where this essentially going into this, they were hoping that they could find some agreement.
Watch above via CNN’s Inside Politics.
