CNN’s Kaitlan Collins replayed footage of a heated exchange she had with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday in which he repeatedly insulted her in response to a question about Jeffrey Epstein.
“What would you say to survivors–” Collins, 33, began to ask before the president, 79, interrupted.
“You are so bad. You know, you are the worst reporter. No wonder,” Trump said. “CNN has no ratings because of people like you.”
Turning to speak to others in the room, Trump continued, “She’s a young woman. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile. I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face.”
Collins attempted to direct the president back to her question, but he continued to insult her, telling her, “You know why you’re not smiling? Because you know you’re not telling the truth, and you’re a very dishonest organization, and they should be ashamed of you.”
He then called on another reporter and declined to allow Collins to finish asking her question.
Replaying the footage on Tuesday night’s episode of The Source, Collins spoke to CNN contributor Kara Swisher about Trump’s attacks and attempts to dismiss the concerns held by survivors of Epstein’s crimes.
While she did not extensively detail her thoughts surrounding the president’s verbal attack, Collins said that the president’s outburst on Tuesday “shed some light” on his mindset around the Epstein files.
“He views things through the lens of how it affects him,” Collins said. Swisher agreed, adding, “It’s a reality distortion field of his own making, and it’s just not true.”
Collins asked Swisher for her thoughts “beyond the attacks, particularly on how Trump was “just shrugging off the concerns that survivors have here.”
“I think of all of these people in these files, which is really disturbing. I think you really got under his skin because of that, so he decided to take personal attacks on you which were whatever, it was just ridiculous,” Swisher replied.
“I think you’re absolutely right to raise that question of what got released and what needs to be released, and now that we’re halfway there, we should do the whole thing.”
The Justice Department released some 3 million more Epstein files on Friday, including unredacted images of naked young women and incorrectly redacted documents that resulted in the publication of sensitive information.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche then announced that the department had “completed“ its review of the files, despite previously acknowledging that the DOJ was in possession of some 6 million files relating to the Epstein case, half of which have still not been released.
Trump has previously taken shots at Collins before, calling her stupid in a cruel Truth Social post published in December.
“Caitlin Collins of Fake News CNN, always Stupid and Nasty, asked me why the new Ballroom was costing more money than originally thought one year ago,” the 79-year-old wrote.
The president has a history of insulting female reporters, calling another reporter “stupid” in November, chastising another reporter for being “aggressive” in December, and dismissing a different reporter’s question as stupid earlier this month.
He made waves last year after snapping at Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey for asking him about the Epstein files, telling her, “Quiet! Quiet, piggy.”
One day after that incident, he unleashed a tirade on another female reporter who asked him about the Epstein files, threatening to revoke her network’s license and telling her to go back to journalism school.
“You’re a radical left network,” Trump told ABC News’ Mary Bruce. “But I think the way you ask the question, with the anger and the meanness, is terrible. You go back and learn how to be a reporter. No more questions from you.”
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