A former White House staffer from President Donald Trump's first term revealed the source of his animus toward a particular reporter.
The 79-year-old president lashed out Wednesday at CNN's Kaitlan Collins when she asked about his $1.8 billion fund set up to provide financial compensation to Jan. 6 rioters and other political allies, and former White House staffer Sarah Matthews discussed the incident on CNN's "NewsNight."
"I will say that during mytime working as deputy presssecretary in the first Trumpadministration, Kaitlan Collinswas the one reporter that scared [then-White House press secretary] Kayleigh McEnany and President Trump the most. There would betimes where Kayleigh McEnanywouldn't even call on Kaitlan Collins at press conferences, atpress briefings, because shedidn't want to answer thequestions because Kaitlan Collins is a very, very goodreporter. She's the best atwhat she does, and I thinkthat's why you see Trump goafter her more ferociously thanany other reporter in that room."
Trump has a history of demeaning women reporters using sexist terms, and that hostility has been amplified in recent months, when he has called them "piggy" and questioned their intelligence in public events.
"It is disgusting to watchhim tell a woman that she needsto smile while doing her job," Matthews said. "I've seen Kaitlan smile plentyof times, but when she's askingsomeone a hard-hitting question,I don't think that meansthat she has to smile whiledoing it, and he brings it uptime and time again, and it'sthese misogynistic attacks, notjust against Kaitlan. You know,he told her today to be quietwhile she tried to ask a follow-up question."
"We've seen him say 'quiet piggy' to a femalereporter, another great femalereporter, I will add, someone Iworked with during my time inthe Trump administration, and soI wish that we this wasn'tnormalized and that we weren'tdesensitized to this type ofbehavior from the president," she added. "Butit really is appalling. And Ijust want to give, you know,kudos to Kaitlan Collins."