CNN star Kaitlan Collins has pressed Donald Trump’s Republican nemesis over GOP candidates ditching the president ahead of the midterms, adding fuel to the fire as her feud with Trump escalates.
Thomas Massie, 55, who lost the Republican primary for Kentucky’s 4th congressional District to Trump-backed Ed Gallrein, appeared on Thursday’s edition of The Source. Collins asked why Republican candidates were distancing themselves from the 80-year-old president.
“Because they have to find some way to get away from this president,” Massie responded. “He’s not out there campaigning for them. They don’t want him in their districts. They’ve got to put space between them and him. And this is the price they’re paying.”
Massie—who has been a frequent target of Trump’s criticism for opposing several of the president’s policies—then predicted a disastrous outcome for Republicans in the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
“Look, I was the Republican who was speaking out for so long, and they were all, whatever Trump wants, they were all for it in their primaries,” he said. “And now they’re about to take a shellacking here in the general election. So, they’re running from him on this and other issues like the [Iran] war.”
Collins pressed Massie on whether Trump understood what could be coming.
“What do you think the president’s response to that is going to be?” Collins asked. “Do you think he’ll understand tough elections are coming up?”
“No,” Massie replied. “If you look at his social media accounts just in the last few hours, he’s unrepentant. He’s in denial.”
“Somebody in the White House needs to get through to him. I think his comeuppance will happen on election day. And the day after, I think there’s gonna be a reckoning,” he added.
The warning comes less than two months before the midterms, as Republicans face difficult polling and the Trump administration scrambles to boost the party’s image amid concerns about rising living costs.
Collins, 34, is herself in the middle of a long-running feud with Trump.
Trump snapped at her after she questioned him at the U.N.’s New York headquarters on Tuesday.
“I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me,” the president said. “You should not be here covering me. You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.”
Collins hit back on Anderson Cooper 360° later that evening, saying CNN had never said it would stop covering Trump.
“The president is the one who’s trying to dictate how we cover him,” she said. “And of course, it is still our job to do so.”
Hours later, Trump doubled down with two midnight Truth Social posts targeting Collins and CNN, including sharing a video mocking a fictional CNN reporter as someone who “tells lies all day long.”
Trump’s beef with Collins goes back months. In February, after Collins questioned Trump about the Epstein files at the White House, he called her “the worst reporter.”
“She’s a young woman. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile,” Trump said. “I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face.”
Trump went after Collins again during July’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, attempting to joke that he had mistaken her for transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
