How to Cover a Sh*tposting White House with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins

Why did George Santos get released from prison? And when will CNN be hiring him as an analyst? Uh, I don't think we're gonna hire him as an analyst. He recently came on. I feel confident... Yeah, but we have people on all the time. Our job is to have people on. He's in negotiations, and that's okay. You're saying this jokingly. I just want to make clear for everyone that that's not true.

Is this setting a precedent that this White House will retaliate against reporters? What would you say to people who believe that you're only releasing these documents now to improve your standing with the president? How is the administration deciding which laws to follow?

I think you would have to ask him, you know, what that is today and how he defines that and what that looks like now that he's in independent media. When I worked there, he was in the office a bunch. I think, you know, he had great stories from his, you know, days at CNN and MSNBC and like as a magazine reporter and we'd like go back and read, you know, some of his old writings and like, you know, trips that he did. And then I think really what he was then was kind of contrarian, skeptical of, you know, whatever the talking point of the day was, like whoever, you know, that was saying it. I think that was kind of the viewpoint that he had.

Of course. All seven. So I was like deeply emotional after reading the final book.

Yeah, I was a big Snape person.

Yeah. Fourth grade I was like people have multitudes.

But I see your point because I think this is something that we saw last week with Marjorie Taylor Greene. She came out and she... and we asked, I asked AOC about this. We had a town hall with AOC and Bernie Sanders. In terms of the fight over the healthcare subsidies, why the government is shut down. And Marjorie Taylor Greene came out and she was blaming Democrats. She said they created this because obviously Republicans don't like Obamacare, but it's now deeply popular and ingrained into, you know, the American healthcare system. But she said, 'Republicans don't have any solutions either on what to do about this.' And I thought that was an interesting moment. And this is what I always like interviewing politicians who just actually tell the truth and speak their minds even if it's unpopular and if it doesn't align with the party talking points because I think that's what people like to hear the most is someone who is genuinely coming forward and saying what... I think people who are authentic resonate the best.

Well, she... I mean she came out and said it. She did an interview with two of my colleagues. I mean, just because a politician says something doesn't mean... Well, and this is actually exactly the point that AOC made when I asked her like, 'Could you guys work together on this?' And she said, 'It's nice that she's saying that.' She's like, 'But I haven't seen her come and say, I'll support this legislation with you or I'll do this.' And so her point was kind of, 'I'll believe it when I see actions from her that back up what she's saying.' I think people can talk a good game. Um, but until they actually support policy that helps people, uh, I, you know, I'm not particularly interested.

I think you have to differentiate because with shitposting you mean like a video that Trump posted over the weekend. I mean because there's also that where like let's actually show the viewers. Let's show the AI-generated video. So this is an AI-generated video of Russell Vought as the grim reaper and then Trump playing the cowbell. Um and then it actually gets weirder. So here's...

You know, it's wild because it does speak to how politics have changed so much in this moment of... If there was a government shutdown like 10 years ago and federal workers are hanging in the balance. The people who do your security at the airport are not getting paid. Trump has figured out a way for the military to get paid in this one paycheck. We'll see if they continue to do so going forward. But a government shutdown, you know, typically has been taken really seriously. And the way the White House has been messaging on this is we're just going to use it to inflict as much pain as possible to get Democrats to come to our side. And I think there's more and more videos like that the longer the shutdown goes on because Dems are not folding the way the White House predicted. I talked to the White House on day three of the shutdown. We're day 19 now, 20-ish, and they were like, 'Oh, by Friday it's going to be over because they're going to fold.'

Yeah, because I think they're frustrated that Democrats aren't folding in the way that they thought that they would.

Oh, no. We choose... We have a whole... I have a whole team for my show like at night of what we choose the White House and we're brainstorming. We always... That's kind of our thing. I always say we're not sanitizing the presidency. Like I don't want to take... you know, a cabinet meeting will go on for three hours. I've literally stood in a cabinet meeting for two and a half hours before and that's like when the press is in there. So it's... I mean it's not even clear like what happens when we're not there or if it continues to go on. But there are moments in there that are really like Trump took a moment at one point and kind of like showed us all the new decorations that he had put up and like yeah super gold the super super all the gold the frames and there was kind of a moment where we're deciding what from that warrants was news what gets in the show like what are we cutting because obviously we can't show all of it. Um, but I have a really important principle that I don't think you should sanitize him or like not show stuff like that on the show because yes, it's like silly and AI-generated, but also like that is their messaging on the government shutdown and there are truly people who are not getting paid right now because of this or there's government services that you can't access or you know air traffic controllers are calling out sick because they can't take off work right now and they're not getting paid. And so I think there's really serious consequences and impacts. And so I just think we should always show that to people and make sure that they know what's happening.

No. MedBed is a thing our... like keep up with it because there's the Tylenol stuff. There's the autism stuff. Then there was a thing about getting circumcised. There's a lot of stuff that's happening. It's never ending. Okay. But it's like my job to keep up with that stuff. Well, anyway, MedBed was this conspiracy that there's like this medical bed that you could go and lie on and it would fix all of your problems. Basically, it's like some conspiracy that's been on the far right. Our conspiracy theorist reporter Donie Sullivan like tried one out.

That's not his actual title, but that's what we call him. Like our... what's his lower chyron when he's on? We say like conspiracy theorist like you know chief correspondent of the conspiracy theories. Stop. No, it's not. Uh but this is what he does. And so he already knew about it. He goes to like far-right conventions and things like this and he had known about this. So Trump posted about it, the med stuff. Okay. And the problem, you know, we asked the White House about this and we did a whole segment on it because I thought it was important to not just ignore the fact that he had posted this because it's basically saying like all of your health issues will go away if you do this one thing. And when the president posts that, like maybe he realizes it's a joke and it's not serious, but there's a lot of people who follow him and believe everything he says. Sure. And I just, you know, so I was like, this is important for us to cover. So we covered it the next day on the show because I didn't feel like we should just ignore it.

Uh, it's not glamorous, that's for sure. But I mean, covering the White House is an amazing job.

It's the center of power in Washington. Yeah.

Um, no. My view of the press corps is the more the merrier, but I will say and I think it's a weird slippery slope when you start saying this person is prestigious enough to cover the White House because some people might have looked down on me when I started covering the White House because of where I worked. I worked at the Daily Caller. I think you have to like look at the reporter. Do they ask good questions? Are they tough? You know, is there scrutiny? And you know, one thing I said recently was because I do think the press corps matters. I don't think you should just ask fawning questions like how great are you or how amazing are you? Or how many accomplishments do you have? I don't care if it's a Democrat or a Republican president. You shouldn't be like... your job as a reporter is to hold them to account. And so I just... I don't like easy questions.

No, it doesn't kill me.

I don't... I mean I think our jobs are really different and I think what we do every day and our outcomes are very different.

Well, I think okay, for example, I'm not a media critic. So I can do what I do and you know, we have a press corps that is made up of really good reporters. I think so. I think you can spotlight one or two, but I think overall the press corps that covers Trump does a really good job covering him and covering his presidency and I think you should ask tough questions. But can I say one thing though because this is actually something that bothered me recently and I raised this with people at the White House. Um so when the Jeffrey Epstein saga really began in earnest this time, you know, when Trump was back in office and it became a thing again because his FBI and DOJ came out and said basically we're not going to release anything else. Like we've looked through this. Nothing else is happening. And it erupted on the far right because they had been promised the Epstein files and yeah, drain the swamp. Yeah. All these people had been, you know, had not been held to account. It was a whole thing. So, right after that, Trump is hosting a cabinet meeting. We're the pool. So, CNN's the pool for the TV. So, I go in to represent all the TV networks. And that was a huge... it was bubbling. Like, it hadn't yet, you know, hit the breaking point where all of these podcasters were coming out and asking what was going on. People were typically really friendly and warm towards the Trump administration, but we go in and the New York Post reporter asked Trump about the Epstein stuff and he kind of blew up and said, 'Are you still talking about this? Is anyone still talking about this?' And there were some of the right-leaning reporters that have been added into the press corps that are friendlier to Trump that were in the room that day or in the briefing that week and they didn't ask about it because, you know, I guess maybe they were worried about backlash from the administration. But I thought if the point of adding more people to the press corps is because those people serve a huge audience and they deserve someone who is asking the questions they want asked, those people were not asking the questions at the beginning. And I thought that said a lot because that glaring omission said a lot, right? That's... if you're there to represent... if the argument for you being in the press corps is that you're representing this audience that other people are not... right. Well, they were the most upset about the Epstein stuff, you know, at the beginning of when all this was playing out because they felt like they had been misled by Kash Patel and Dan Bongino and Pam Bondi who had made all these public comments about what was coming and then basically nothing came out. And remember, they invited all those far-right people, the podcasters to the White House for the binders that were already... it was already information that was already out there. And so I just thought in that moment, well, that's why you are arguing you should be in the press corps, but you're not really asking the questions that your audience wants asked.

Yeah, that's the James Brady briefing room. It's named after, um, Reagan's press secretary. And you... it's so much smaller in real life than it looks like on TV. I think that's like the one thing people come in the room, it's like their first comment they make if you're a visitor at the White House. And, um, everyone has an assigned space. It's tiny. I've been in the... I'm like, 'This is it?' Yeah. It's smaller than this. Yeah. Way smaller than this. Yeah. And it gets crowded and there's people in the aisles because it's assigned seating but then people stand in the aisles, camera photographers are there back and on the sides. Um and you go in there for the brief... I mean we have a once a week press briefing you go in and yeah everyone like she calls on whoever you know you're kind of sitting there signaling trying to get a question. You don't always get a question and then that's it. You know, raise your hand. Yeah. Or I'll say like Caroline, Karoline, I'll signal to get her attention. Um, and then but that's pretty much... I mean that's like the moment I think it's helpful to get people on the record on camera on things like that because of, you know, what's the legal justification for striking these boats um that are, you know, off the waters that they're alleging the alleged Caribbean drug dealer boats.

I mean I think we're on like the seventh boat now and this is actually an interesting point where for the first time there were survivors from the strike and what they're deliberating doing is returning them to their home countries, which it raises a lot of questions for me because one, if you're saying that what these people are doing is so bad that you can just one-off strike this boat um because they're arguing that they're carrying all these drugs and they're trying to kill Americans, right? You know, why would you just return those people to their home country? I think it's legally like an easier thing to do. Yeah. Um but it has raised a lot of questions about their practice.

I don't know. But I mean, there's like 50 cameras. There's like a lot.

Yes. Yeah. Yes. I mean I don't... that's not why you're there. I see why your point is that that happens, but I don't... I mean no one goes in there thinking let me get my SNL moment. I mean you're going in there to ask questions. And I also think if you watch the whole press briefing, it's not as electric sometimes as you see in the clips that are edited and put online because this happens. Yeah. Sometimes it's people who love your question or clipping it. It's also the reverse. I mean, people saying like, 'I can't believe you asked this' or 'totally you took that time to do that.' And I'll say this happens not just when Trump's in office. This also happened when Biden was in office and Jen Psaki was the press secretary where people would be so upset about a question you asked or that you implied something. But that is our job truly is to ask questions no matter who's the press secretary or who's the president. There's always a bit of tension between the press office and the press corps because you're asking questions that they don't like sometimes. And so I... your job is definitely not to get an SNL moment. Um your job is there to ask tough questions.

Well, I had the police chief Bob Day of Portland on my show. Yes. And I asked him, 'Do you need the National Guard? Is it out of your control?' Yes. Is this atypical? Right. How big are the protests? Like, where is this spreading? And what he told us on the show, I think it was the day before that briefing or maybe even two days before, he said, 'No, we don't need the National Guard.' He was very straightforward. He's like a very straightforward person. Um he's not a partisan official. He wasn't, you know, the argument. I think she maybe thought I was talking to like the Democratic mayor or governor. No, I was talking to the police chief and he said no. He said it's about a block wide of a protest right around this ICE facility. If you go to other parts of Portland, it looks completely normal. It's not out of control in any way, shape, or form. Obviously, there were protests actually happening. There was a police presence required, but he said it wasn't out of control and they didn't need the National Guard. And he was very straightforward about it. He didn't hedge or anything. And so, I asked her about that. And obviously, you know, she was trying to imply that we didn't know what was actually happening in Portland because I wasn't physically there on the ground. Obviously, I'm covering the White House. My job is to be at the White House, but we had reporters who were in Portland and we had them first thing on the show that night. Shimon Prokupecz was there. We had him on and I said, 'Okay, what's happening on the ground? Like you've been there, what does it look like?' And he walked us through and you could see the scene for what it was. And so that was a moment where they tried to turn it into something that, you know, I was just asking, you know, police chief says he doesn't need your help. Like, and my question was, which local official has said, we need you to send in the National Guard? Because if the National Guard needs to go in, don't you think someone locally would say we really need this? Right. And she couldn't point to anyone.

That's a good question. And I think that anyone watching that exchange, whether you are someone who believes the National Guard should be sent into every Democratic city or you're someone who thinks this is a huge overreach of power and is worried about putting our military members on the streets of American cities to do things that they're not trained to do. And so, which was part of what happened in Portland, they sent the National Guard or they tried to, but they weren't even like actually deployed. And so I think the value of that is whether whoever you are in that moment watching that exchange, you know, I think it's an unimpeachable question which, who told you that that's needed there? Like justify your reasoning for wanting to send in the National Guard as an administration. And I think when they can't and they can't point to anyone who has said we need the National Guard to come in, I think that's really telling. And I think that's an important moment because I think regardless of where you fall on that, it says a lot.