CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Rips Trump Attacks On Women Reporters — Tells Press To Stand Up To Him

CNN anchor and senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins called out President Donald Trump’s “inappropriate” attacks on women reporters like Catherine Lucey and Weijia Jiang, and said it’s important for reporters to show “backbone” and stand up for each other.

Collins was a guest on Wednesday’s episode of Heather McMahan’s Absolutely Not podcast, during which the host asked her about Trump’s “Quiet, Piggy!” attack on Lucey.

After revealing she’d reached out to Lucey, Collins recounted a time she stood up for Jiang after Trump attacked her:

HEATHER MCMAHAN: So like seeing, you know, I had like a visceral reaction when Trump tells one of the reporters on Air Force One to quiet down Piggy and–.

Is there’s a sense of camaraderie with other female reporters specifically like, hey girl, you good? That’s insane.

CNN ANCHOR KAITLAN COLLINS: Yeah. There is, yeah, yeah there is. And I reached out to her after that because it’s just inappropriate. And I think you have to at least say, hey, that’s not cool.

Or I can remember when the president did this to Wei Zhejiang when we were in round one. And she asked him a question about COVID and he told her to go ask China that question.

She grew up in West Virginia. And so we just, in that moment, and he tried to move on to me in that movement. And I was like, no, no. She has a follow-up and I’m gonna let her follow up.

Because it was just like, you can’t, someone has to stand up for it and have a backbone in that moment.

Because if you don’t in that moments, one, it sends a message to the press corps, but also it sends message to everyone who’s watching.

And I do think solidarity is important. I don’t think everyone has to ask the same question. I think reporters can ask what they want to ask. They showed up that day.

But I do think following up and solidarity is effective and it only furthers all of our, our jobs and mission.

Watch above via Heather McMahan’s Absolutely Not podcast and watch the full episode here.

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