Kaitlan Collins Is Not “Nasty”; She’s Just Doing Her Job.

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Obama, News, Wnyc, Washington, Barack, President, Lizza, Wickenden

4.2 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

Kaitlan Collins was only a couple years out of college when she became a White House correspondent for Tucker Carlson’s the Daily Caller. Collins stayed in the White House when she went over to CNN during Donald Trump’s first term, and she returned for his second. Trump has made his disdain for CNN clear—and he’s not a big fan of Collins, either. At one point during Trump’s first term, she was barred from a press conference; he called her a “nasty person” during a Presidential campaign interview. There’s never been a White House so overtly hostile to the press than the second Trump Administration, penalizing news organizations for not conforming to the President’s wishes. But, as Collins tells the staff writer Clare Malone, she believes that Trump is “someone who seeks the validation of the press as much as he criticizes them publicly. And so, you know, it doesn’t really bother me when he gets upset at my question.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the political scene. I'm David Remnick.
0:08.6	Early each week, we bring you a conversation from our episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour.
0:15.4	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:23.9	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour.
0:25.8	I'm Claire Malone.
0:26.8	I'm a staff writer, and I cover politics and the media business.
0:30.1	David Remnick is off this week.
0:33.7	When I talk to a longtime journalist about Donald Trump, I sometimes hear a kind of astonishment about how American politics change so much so quickly.
0:42.3	You're probably familiar with what I'm talking about.
0:44.9	Even 10 years into Trump's emergence in national politics, we are shocked that a president could threaten to annex Canada, for example, or blame DEI for a plane crash.
0:55.1	Trump is not outside the box, to use the old phrase.
0:57.8	He blew up the box.
0:59.6	And it's instinctive for people who have covered politics for a long time
1:03.1	to point out how far a field he's gone.
1:05.8	Not to mention, it's also part of our job.
1:09.1	Caitlin Collins was only a couple years out of college
1:12.0	when she became White House correspondent for the Daily Caller,
1:15.2	the news and opinion site co-founded by Tucker Carlson.
1:18.5	Professionally, she's pretty much only known
1:20.5	the feverish Trump media environment.
1:23.2	Collins went over to CNN during Trump's first term,
1:25.8	and she's returned to the White House for his second term.
	...

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