CNN host Kaitlan Collins has humiliated President Donald Trump over the reality of his self-sabotaging press ban.
Trump, 80, banned CNN, Politico and MS NOW from covering the White House last Friday. The outlets prevailed in court with a dramatic 1 a.m. ruling against the president in the early hours of Thursday, but not before the media blackout backfired on the president.
Since Monday, the networks that operate the White House TV pool coverage—ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC— have declined to cover Trump’s public appearances in solitary with the banned outlets.
That was awkward timing for Trump’s fawning welcome to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday. As well as Trump being on the 100-ft red carpet to meet the communist dictator as he came off the plane, a military flyover was arranged for the occasion.
Not only did the loud noise of the B-1 bombers he organized cause Trump to wince, but no major TV networks were present to film the event the U.S. president lavished on his Chinese counterpart.
Crews from CBS, Fox News and NBC had set up their cameras at Joint Base Andrews in case the federal judge in Washington agreed to suspend Trump’s press ban in court on Wednesday, according to the New York Times.
The ruling from Judge Timothy J. Kelly, who Trump appointed, did not come until the early hours of Thursday morning, long after the major network crews had dismantled their equipment.
Speaking on her show The Source on Wednesday, Collins pointed out the irony of Trump’s grand gesture to impress his Chinese guest.
“It was a landmark scene made for television that had trouble finding a screen,” Collins said.
“While the moment may have been historic, it certainly wasn’t prolific,” she added. “That’s because no cameras from the five major TV networks that reach millions of people every day were rolling as it happened.”
The CNN host said the visit is “playing far out away from a lot of the cameras.” She also noted that it has been a “very warm welcome” for the leader of a country Trump accused of meddling in the 2020 election as recently as July when he claimed voter data in 18 states was “bought, stolen or hacked by China.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Some of the niche conservative TV networks that were present to film the Chinese leader’s arrival included One America News, the Right Side Broadcasting Network and LindellTV, a digital news site run by Trump ally and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell.
After Trump returned to the White House to speak to media, Real America’s Voice’s feed of his remarks failed several times, leaving what he was saying inaudible in an embarrassing tech glitch.
The Times reported that while the Associated Press did film President Xi’s arrival and made it available to subscribers, the wire service would not put the footage on its own platforms.
“We continue to stand with our colleagues at other news organizations who have had their access restricted,” an AP spokesman told the Times.
Collins’ comments on Trump came after Trump, 80, blasted her on Truth Social in a pair of midnight posts the previous night.
The CNN host asked Trump a question at U.N.’s New York headquarters on Tuesday, causing him to snap at her, “You should not be here covering me. You said you weren’t going to cover me.” She had been given credentials to cover the event by the U.N.
Collins also later pointed out that CNN had never said they would not be covering Trump, despite his ban on the network.
Trump posted on Truth Social, “All of the SLEAZEBAGS, like Third Rate `Reporter,’ Kaitlan Collins, of Fake News CNN, a truly unhappy person, said they weren’t going to be covering me. Then why were they ranting and raving like Lunatics, in the Press Area, at the United Nations? Why was she there? She’s got a `TRUMP’ addiction, and so does CNN and MSDNC. They’re all sick, treasonous, and demented!”
