Kaitlan Collins

Kaitlan Collins (born April 7, 1992) is an American journalist and news anchor at CNN. She is the former co-anchor of '' CNN This Morning''. She has hosted ''The Source'' at 9 p.m. since July 2023. She also served as the network's chief White House correspondent from January 2021 until November 2022. Previously, she was the White House correspondent for the website '' The Daily Caller''. She resumed her role as CNN's chief White House correspondent for the second Trump presidency.

Early life

Kaitlan Collins was born in Prattville, Alabama. She grew up with four siblings: Annalise, Kelsey, Brayden, and Cole. Her father, Jeff Collins Sr., is a mortgage banker. Her mother is Tina Collins. She says that her parents taught her that "the political system in the U.S. is a failed one" and that she does not recall them voting or expressing strong opinions about political candidates.

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

Career

''The Daily Caller'' (2014–2017)

After graduating from college, Collins moved to Washington, D.C., for an internship with the website '' The Daily Caller''. In June 2014, she was hired by ''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.

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.

CNN (2017–present)

In July 2017, CNN hired Collins as part of its efforts in covering presidential news. As a member of the press corps, Collins reported on six or more of Trump's international presidential trips.

Collins was involved in an 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. Collins was subsequently barred from a Trump administration press conference in the White House Rose Garden that afternoon and was told by senior White House officials that such questions were "inappropriate for that venue". Trump's press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Collins had "shouted questions and refused to leave"; Trump's advisor Kellyanne Conway said that the action was about "being polite". 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". 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." Jay Wallace, president of Fox News, issued a statement in support of Collins, saying that his organization " toodin strong solidarity with CNN for the right to full access for tsjournalists as part of a free and unfettered press."

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

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.
Before landing the morning show job Collins was elected to serve as President of the White House Correspondents Association for the 2024-2025 term, a position she relinquished when moving to New York. On October 12, 2022, CNN announced that the morning show would be named '' CNN This Morning''.

Collins moderated a town-hall–style event with Donald Trump on May 10, 2023. The event included questions from Republican primary voters in New Hampshire. During that event, while Collins pointed out that Joe Biden—whose home was also searched when classified documents were discovered at the Penn Biden Center—did not defy a subpoena, Trump asked Collins whether she would let him answer the question. Collins said, “Yes, that’s why I asked it”, prompting Trump to call her a " nasty person".

On May 17, 2023, Collins was named CNN's new 9 p.m. ET host, and her program was scheduled to begin in June. She left ''CNN This Morning'' on May 25, 2023; her place there was taken by a rotation of CNN anchors.

On November 26, 2024, CNN announced that Collins would return as the network's chief White House correspondent for the second Trump presidency while keeping her primetime post.

''The Source with Kaitlan Collins''

On July 5, 2023, it was announced that Collins' new 9 p.m. program would be titled ''The Source with Kaitlan Collins''. The show premiered on July 10. She has been hosting this prime time hourly show on weekdays between ''Anderson Cooper 360°'' and ''CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip.''

Personal life

Collins is a registered independent.

In October 2022, she moved to New York City to host ''CNN This Morning''.

Awards

Collins was included on ''Forbes'''s " 30 Under 30: Media" list in 2019.

In late 2024, Collins was named one of America's 10 best TV news journalists by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. The organization, purveyors of the Dorian Awards to mainstream and LGBTQ-themed content, praised Collins for "fact-checking leaders when they spewed misinformation”, and for how she "calmly holds the powerful accountable” on her CNN program ''The Source with Kaitlan Collins''. Los Angeles Blade November 7, 2024

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References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Kaitlan
1992 births
21st-century American women journalists
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American women writers
Alabama independents
American television reporters and correspondents
American women television journalists
CNN people
Journalists from Alabama
Living people
People from Prattville, Alabama
University of Alabama alumni