Kaitlan Collins issued rare praise for White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt after the Trump official had her back while being denied entry to an event in Saudi Arabia last year.
During a recent episode of the “Absolutely Not” podcast with Heather McMahan, Collins recalled an event last May she attended as press with President Trump to Saudi Arabia. Per Collins, she had asked Trump a question while he was with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which upset the Saudi Royal Guard as they were “not used to that … because they don’t have a free press.”
Collins, the chief White House correspondent for CNN, was told by Saudi officials that she would not be allowed to attend the following event after having shouted her question to Trump. At this point, Leavitt stepped in and made sure Collins was brought with them.
“To her credit, she said, ‘No, Kaitlan’s coming in with the rest of the U.S. press,’” Collins said. “And we went in, and it didn’t become this huge issue.”
Leavitt and Collins have butted heads in press rooms before. Often, it manifests in the form of a sharp response to one of the CNN reporter’s questions, but Collins defended that the press secretary job under Trump can be pretty thankless.
“Trump thinks he’s his own best spokesperson,” Collins said. “He is often the person you really want to ask the question to because he will answer it in the way that he believes is, you know, how he truly feels on a subject. I never went into the briefing room thinking like, ‘Oh, they’re going to love my questions.’ I try to be fair. I never am trying to be super antagonistic or try to ask something – it’s genuinely a question that I have when I go in. It’s a good faith question. Obviously, that leads to clashes sometimes when they don’t like my question. Sometimes, I actually think my question is not as confrontational as the responses.”
That said, Collins commended Leavitt for advocating for her and making sure she was able to continue covering the Saudi events last May, saying it was “important in that moment, especially when you’re the U.S. contingent abroad, and we don’t do things like they do in Saudi Arabia.”
Despite that moment of feeling like they were on the same team, the Trump administration has continued to attack US reporters – particularly women – regularly. Just a few weeks ago, the president lashed out at Collins in the Oval Office after she asked a question about Epstein victims following the release of new documents.
“You are so bad. You are the worst reporter. No wonder CNN has no ratings,” Trump said in response to her question about survivors. “She’s a young woman. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile. I’ve known you for ten years, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face. You know why you’re not smiling? Because you know you’re not telling the truth. You’re a very dishonest organization, and they should be ashamed of you.”
