President Donald Trump he also criticized CNN's chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins during an Oval Office press conference on Wednesday, June 3.
Trump, 79, called CNN a “very corrupt organization” before referring to Collins, 34, who was attending a press conference.
Pointing to Collins, he described the reporter as “a corrupt reporter standing there, never smiling.”
“She's a beautiful young woman. She never smiles. I've never seen a smile on her face,” he continued to sneer at Collins. “I see him standing there with hatred in his eyes, as if he has hatred, because we have borders, because we have a strong army, because we are cutting our taxes, because we are doing things that everyone wanted, and then we won our elections with a big landslide.”
Later, Trump again criticized Collins when he asked him about the Justice Department reportedly spending a proposed $1.8 billion “anti-gun” fund.
Trump did not give a clear answer about whether the fund will continue but described it as “a good thing” because “people like you have hurt our people a lot.” Fake news, like CNN, loves it. The New York Timesand like others, they have tortured our people, they have tortured our people a lot.”
When Collins tried to intervene, Trump told him to “shut up.”
He continued, “And you should be ashamed of yourself. You used to be a conservative. He was a conservative in Alabama, can you believe it?”
President Donald Trump is targeting political podcasters like Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens after they criticized him during the conflict in Iran. “I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years, mostly because they think it's cool. […]
“But mostly, CNN did such false reporting, but now they have new ownership, so maybe it will coincide, but I doubt it. It's hard to fix the garbage,” he added, referring to the proposed acquisition of CNN's parent company Warner Bros. Acquisition by Paramount Skydance.
In a statement sent to Deadline on Wednesday, CNN said, “Kaitlan Collins is an outstanding reporter, reporting every day from the White House and from the field with real depth and depth. She brings that insightful reporting to the anchor chair and CNN platforms every day, which audiences around the world know they can trust.”
Trump previously singled out Collins at an Oval Office press conference in February, telling her, “You're a young woman … I don't think I've ever seen you smile. I've known you for 10 years. I don't think I've ever seen a smile on your face.”
At the time, Collins was asking Trump about the victims of convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein.
Collins addressed Trump's remarks on the Tuesday, June 2, episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
“When he told me I should smile a lot when I asked him about sexual assault victims, at the time, I thought, 'This is not going to be well received,'” she said. “I knew how other people would react.”
He added, “I think that as a journalist, you shouldn't talk about yourself. It's about the president, about the person you're asking. But we're also people.”
