CNN host Kaitlan Collins has spoken out after Donald Trump told her to “smile” while she was asking him about the victims of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump, 79, shut down Collins’ line of questioning on Tuesday, calling the CNN host “the worst reporter,” stating, “I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face.”
Then, on Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance appeared on The Megyn Kelly Show as criticism over the comments grew.
“She’s asking a question, the president says, ‘Why don’t you ever smile?’ Yeah, it’s actually, like, so perceptive,” Vance said, defending Trump. “Even if you’re asking a tough question, even if you take your job very seriously, like, does it always have to be so antagonistic?”
“Have some fun, right? You can’t always take yourself too seriously. You’re gonna have a heart attack,” he went on. “And that’s too much of the Washington press corps. And of course, they don’t act like that when the other guys are in power, so there is a political bias angle to it.”
The vice president noted he has a “decent relationship” with Collins, “which is unusual given she’s from CNN.”
Former Fox News host Kelly bragged that she had complained about Collins not smiling last year. She then told Vance how disgraced Fox CEO Roger Ailes “used to tell us that, ‘Every once in a while, remember to smile. Show the viewers that you have a heart.’”
Speaking on CNN’s The Source on Thursday evening, Collins addressed the comments involving Trump, Vance and right-wing host Kelly.
“Yes, Megyn Kelly there was citing Roger Ailes, her former boss at Fox News, that she accused of sexual harassment,” Collins said.
Kelly wrote about Ailes in her 2016 book Settle for More. Promoting the memoir, she told Good Morning America that Ailes “tried to kiss me three times [in his office], so I rejected that, and when I rejected that, he asked me when my contract was up.”
She said she did not report Ailes earlier as it would have been “a suicide mission.”
After his conduct towards several female staff was revealed, Ailes resigned from Fox in 2016 with a handout worth a reported $40 million. He died in 2017.
Collins continued, “Again, the point of the question was what the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein are saying and the justice and the accountability that they want to see.”
She added, “It‘s nothing to smile about.”
Collins then spoke to Epstein survivor Annie Farmer, who thanked the host for her questioning of Trump on behalf of victims.
“I know I don‘t just speak for myself when I say I really appreciate how persistent you were in questioning this administration about their failure with this release,” Farmer said. “I don‘t think it‘s something to smile about. And I thought you handled it very appropriately.”
Farmer added, “I‘m not surprised that Trump is ready to move on and that this DOJ is ready to move on, but we are certainly not. Especially after we see we saw how poorly this last release of documents was handled.”
The Department of Justice released three million heavily redacted documents from the Epstein files last week, only half of the remaining six million pieces of evidence.
Farmer also pointed out that the latest dump included a list of names “literally called the Epstein victim list” that had dozens of names, “primarily of minor victims,” completely unredacted.
She also said there were “people in positions of power” who were continuing to be protected, noting that this was “the exact thing that the law was supposed to outline was not supposed to happen.”
Farmer added, “When they say we‘ve released everything that‘s pertinent to this investigation, we‘re not buying it.”
Collins also pointed out that U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is investigating the links to Epstein of Lord Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the U.S.
“I think when we‘re looking overseas, we‘re wondering why is that happening elsewhere?” Farmer said. “And we‘re not seeing it here.”
“People that were willing to look the other way about pedophilia are not people that I want making decisions about my child‘s education or about the healthcare of our country,” she said.
Farmer also called out Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for saying there was not enough evidence for further prosecution.
Blanche said this week, “it’s not a crime to party with Mr Epstein.”
“The prosecutors I‘m talking to that specifically work on these types of crimes are saying these files are full of investigative leads,” Farmer said.
“But what we‘re not seeing is where was the investigation? And until we see what happened to follow upon those leads, I don‘t know how we‘re supposed to be satisfied and willing to move on, when we know nothing was done.”
Collins briefly addressed Trump’s request for her to smile on Tuesday night’s episode of The Source. Speaking to CNN contributor Kara Swisher, Collins said 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.”
