Veterans Secretary Doug Collins hijacked a CNN interview by demanding the host answer his questions after taking exception to being asked repeatedly about the Signal chat leak.
Host Kaitlan Collins repeatedly asked the secretary to share his thoughts on the scandal—in which a journalist was accidentally added to a group chat of senior Trump officials discussing U.S. military strikes. The interview began cordially enough, with the Republican laughing at the broadcaster’s note that there is “no relation” between them, but things quickly went off the rails when asked about the national security blunder.
“I was not involved in the chat,” he said. “I’ve explained that. I trust the president’s opinion on it. I trust what’s been going on. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. My opinion is that my job is to take care of veterans in this country as they come out of service, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.”
Kaitlan Collins followed up by asking if he believes a “mistake was made here.”
“Kaitlan, as I’ve just told you, I’ve just answered the question,” the Air Force veteran responded. “I wasn’t a part of it and, you know, I’m not going to speculate more than what the president has already talked about, and those who have been involved have talked about, but would love to talk about the veterans.”
But when pressed a third time, Doug Collins’ decided to go on the attack.
“Since you undoubtedly don’t want to talk about the VA, I have a question as VA secretary,” before trying to pivot the conversation towards a lawsuit which saw CNN found liable for defaming a U.S. Navy veteran in January.
A jury found the network had defamed security contractor Zachary Young during a 2021 report which claimed he was involved in a “black market” which sought to price-gouge people fleeing from Afghanistan after the U.S. pulled its forces out of the country.
“I want to ask you because I’ve been curious about this, because my job is to take care of veterans, and I would like to know why CNN is hostile to veterans,” Doug Collins said. “Especially one in Florida where you just had a $5 million defamation suit taking offense at a veteran who is trying to help people.”
“In fact, one of your employees actually said, ‘We’re gonna ‘nail’ him,‘” he continued, referring to internal CNN messages presented during the trial. “I have a question for you, Kaitlan. Is that employee still employed? Are you really concerned about veterans? So if we don’t want to talk about veterans now, you want to talk about everything else, I’d like to hear from CNN—as the veteran Cabinet secretary—why CNN seems to have a problem with veterans.”
When Kaitlan Collins attempted to bring the interview back on track, the secretary swatted her down with repeated demands to “answer my question.”
“Respectfully, sir, I’m asking the questions here,” she said.
“No, I am,” Doug Collins replied. “I am right now!”
After some heated crosstalk the interview was eventually calmed down, with the host acknowledging the secretary’s refusal to answer questions about the Signal scandal before moving on to questions about Veteran’s Affairs.
