Kaitlan Collins

Kaitlan Collins (born April 7, 1992)[1][2] is an American journalist who served as the chief White House correspondent for CNN until 2022. She currently hosts CNN This Morning alongside Poppy Harlow, and is set to depart to host her own program in the network's 9 p.m. ET hour in June 2023.[3] Previously, she was the White House correspondent for the website The Daily Caller.[4]

For the Australian politician, see Caitlin Collins.

Kaitlan Collins
Collins at the White House Press Briefing room in 2022
Born (1992-04-07) April 7, 1992
Prattville, Alabama, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Alabama (BA)
OccupationJournalist
Employers

Early life and education

Kaitlan Collins was born in Prattville, Alabama.[1][5] Her father, Jeff Collins, is a mortgage banker.[6] Collins has described her upbringing as "apolitical," and has stated that she does not recall her parents voting or expressing strong opinions about political candidates.[1]

Collins graduated from Prattville High School and went on to attend the University of Alabama. She initially chose to major in chemistry, like her sister, before majoring in journalism.[1] She earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and journalism in May of 2014.[5][1] Collins was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority.[5]

In 2018, the group Log Cabin Republicans unearthed some tweets from her time at the University of Alabama in 2011. Collins used the slur fag and expressed that she did not know "if I wanna room with a lesbian." She apologized for the tweets, saying, "When I was in college, I used ignorant language in a few tweets to my friends. It was immature but it doesn’t represent the way I feel at all."[7][8][9]

Career

After graduating from college, Collins moved to Washington, D.C.[4] In June 2014, she was hired by website The Daily Caller as an entertainment reporter. After covering the 2016 presidential election, the Daily Caller named her its White House correspondent in January 2017, and she began covering the Trump administration.[10][4]

While she was still with The Daily Caller, Collins was invited to make several appearances on CNN. At a White House correspondent event in spring 2017, she met network president Jeff Zucker and thanked him for having her on despite the ideological nature of her employer at the time. In July 2017, Collins was hired by CNN as part of the team covering presidential news.[10][4] As a member of the press corps, Collins reported on at least half a dozen of Trump's international presidential trips.[10][11]

Collins was involved in a notable incident with the Trump administration on July 25, 2018, when she attended a photo op in the Oval Office as the day's pool reporter. As the event concluded, Collins asked Trump a series of questions about Vladimir Putin and about Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen. Trump ignored her questions.[10][12] Collins was subsequently barred from a Trump administration press conference in the White House Rose Garden that afternoon[13] and was told by senior White House officials that such questions were "inappropriate for that venue."[14][15] Trump's press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Collins had "shouted questions and refused to leave,"[14] while Trump's advisor Kellyanne Conway said that the action was about "being polite."[16] Trump's deputy chief of staff for communications, Bill Shine, objected to the characterization of the White House's action as a "ban" but "declined to tell reporters what word he would use to characterize the White House’s decision to block her from attending the event."[16] CNN stated that Collins' ban was "retaliatory" and "not indicative of an open and free press." The White House Correspondents Association called the ban "wholly inappropriate, wrong-headed, and weak."[14][16] Jay Wallace, president of Fox News, issued a statement in support of Collins, saying that his organization "[stood] in strong solidarity with CNN for the right to full access for our journalists as part of a free and unfettered press."[14]

Collins served as the CNN White House correspondent for a large part of the written and televised live coverage of the 2020 United States presidential election, and was subsequently promoted to chief White House correspondent for the incoming Biden administration on January 11, 2021.[17] At a briefing that took place a few weeks after the election, then-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany refused to take a question from Collins and called her an "activist".[18] At 28 years old, she was the youngest chief White House correspondent in CNN's history,[10] and one of the youngest chief correspondents for a major media network.[19]

On September 15, 2022, CNN announced that Collins would move to co-anchoring a revamped CNN morning show with Don Lemon and Poppy Harlow, ending her tenure as chief White House correspondent.[20] On October 12, 2022, CNN announced that the morning show would be named CNN This Morning.[21]

Collins moderated a town hall event with Donald Trump on May 10, 2023. The event included questions from Republican primary voters in New Hampshire. Toward the end of the event, the former president said to her, "You're a nasty person."[22][23]

On May 17, 2023, Collins was named CNN's new 9 p.m. ET host, with her program scheduled to begin in June. Her role with CNN This Morning will be filled on a rotating basis by current CNN personnel.[24]

References
  1. Stern, Claire (April 2, 2021). "How CNN's Kaitlan Collins Took an 'Apolitical Upbringing' All the Way to the White House". InStyle. ISSN 1076-0830. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  2. "Birthday of the Day: Kaitlan Collins, CNN White House correspondent". Politico. April 7, 2020. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  3. Valinsky, Lucy Bayly,Jordan (May 17, 2023). "Kaitlan Collins to anchor new 9 pm show on CNN | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  4. Ariens, Chris (June 15, 2017). "Kaitlan Collins Joins CNN from The Daily Caller". Adweek. Archived from the original on February 15, 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  5. Hrynkiw, Ivana (October 8, 2018). "CNN's Kaitlan Collins apologizes for tweets from her University of Alabama days". AL.com. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
  6. O'Donoghue, Denise (February 3, 2021). "What we know about CNN's Kaitlan Collins, who has been welcomed into the global Irish family". Irish Examiner. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
  7. Nordyke, Kimberly (October 7, 2018). "CNN Reporter Kaitlan Collins Apologizes for Gay Slurs in Resurfaced Tweets". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved March 19, 2021.
  8. Dicker, Ron (October 8, 2018). "CNN Reporter Kaitlan Collins Apologizes For Past Gay Slurs On Twitter". HuffPost. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved March 19, 2021.
  9. Cummings, William (October 8, 2018). "CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins 'regrets' homophobic tweets from college days". USA Today. Archived from the original on April 14, 2020. Retrieved March 19, 2021.
  10. Shacknai, Gabby (February 1, 2021). "How CNN's Kaitlan Collins Built A Career Covering Trump And Became The Network's Youngest Chief White House Correspondent". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  11. "Kaitlan Collins official Biography at the CNN site". CNN. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  12. Romo, Vanessa (July 25, 2018). "CNN Reporter: White House Called My Questions 'Inappropriate,' Banned Me From Event". NPR. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  13. Richardson, Matt (July 25, 2018). "CNN correspondent blocked from White House press event". Fox News. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
  14. "Kaitlan Collins: Row over CNN reporter's White House ban". BBC News. July 26, 2018. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
  15. Keegan, Rebecca (July 27, 2018). "Mission: Impossible—Fallout's Wolf Blitzer Cameo and the Possible Perils of Fake Fake News". Vanity Fair. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  16. Phelps, Jordyn (July 26, 2018). "White House disputes that CNN's Kaitlan Collins was 'banned'". ABC News. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
  17. "November 4 US election news". CNN. November 4, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  18. Barr, Jeremy (November 1, 2022). "The meteoric rise of CNN's Kaitlan Collins". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  19. DePaolo, Joe (January 11, 2021). "CNN Shakes Up Afternoon and Evening Lineup". Mediaite. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
  20. Darcy, Oliver (September 15, 2022). "CNN announces it will debut new morning show with Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, and Kaitlan Collins". CNN. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  21. Bauder, David (October 12, 2022). "CNN reveals name, start date for new morning show". The Hill. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
  22. Goldmacher, Shane; Haberman, Maggie (May 11, 2023). "Five Takeaways From Trump's Unruly CNN Town Hall". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  23. "CNN leadership under fire after 'disastrous' Trump town hall". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
  24. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/17/media/cnn-kaitlan-collins-new-show/index.html
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