All posts tagged "cnn"

Kaitlan Collins flips Trump's favorite insult back at him with on-air desk decor

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins fired back at President Donald Trump this week by turning his favorite insult into on-air desk decor.

A mug emblazoned with the words "America Needs Nasty Women" sat in clear view on Collins' desk during multiple broadcasts of her CNN show "The Source," The Daily Beast reported Saturday.

The message is a pointed callback to an insult Trump has hurled at Collins for years. During a 2023 CNN town hall in the Republican primary, Collins pressed Trump on the classified documents the FBI said he had kept at Mar-a-Lago and refused to hand back, a standoff that ended in a search of the property. Trump shot back, "You are a nasty person."

The attacks have only intensified since Trump returned to the White House. In a December Truth Social post, he misspelled her name and branded her "always Stupid and Nasty."

In September, the Trump administration barred CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House and removed CNN from Air Force One. After a judge Trump himself appointed struck down the ban on First Amendment grounds, the president turned his fire on Collins directly, telling her she "shouldn't be here."

Trump went after her again this week in a lengthy interview with Time, complaining that the press refuses to cover his accomplishments fairly.

"She's a very average person. She's the most unhappy young person I've ever seen," Trump said of Collins. "If I did something spectacular by any standard, and they would write about it, they will only write badly."

Collins first displayed the mug Wednesday while talking with CNN data analyst Harry Enten, and it reappeared on her desk for Friday night's broadcast. CNN contributor Jennifer Mascia flagged it on X in a post that went viral.

"Loving Kaitlan Collins' mug on CNN tonight," Mascia wrote, quoting the slogan alongside fire and devil emojis.

‘Total disaster’: Bari Weiss dealt ‘real indictment’ as CBS turmoil complicates CNN plans

Paramount CEO David Ellison’s effort to keep CNN chief Mark Thompson aboard signals doubts about Bari Weiss’s ability to oversee the network after turmoil at CBS News, Status founder Oliver Darcy argued.

“I think that’s a real indictment of her. I really do,” Darcy said Friday on Status’s "Powerlines" podcast as he dug into Ellison’s apparent assessment that Weiss isn’t ready for the high-profile role.

“I don’t think this is a good sign for Barry Weiss,” he added.

Darcy said Status had heard Ellison’s enthusiasm for Weiss had fizzled. Ellison’s decision to ask Thompson to stay at CNN, he argued, “indicated that he does not believe that she has the operational chops to oversee CNN.”

According to Darcy, the original plan was for Weiss to lead both news organizations. Executive then sought an experienced business leader to pair with her, but industry veterans pushed back.

“No one wants to work with Bari Weiss,” Darcy said Friday. “No one worth their salt wants to share editorial oversight or any oversight of any company with Bari Weiss.”

Darcy described the upheaval at 60 Minutes as a “total disaster." Status co-host Jon Passantino questioned whether Weiss would survive at CBS.

“I think that by every metric, it has not been a success,” Passantino said. “It’s been a public embarrassment at times.”

But Darcy cautioned that Ellison could still want Weiss to lead both news operations eventually.

For now, he said, CNN employees were “breathing a sigh of relief that for now Barry Weiss is not coming in.”

‘Out of control’: Jared Kushner lashes out at ‘deeply misleading’ CNN report

Jared Kushner lashed out at CNN on Friday, accusing the network of publishing a “deeply misleading” investigation about his business investments — and declaring that a decade of ignoring stories about himself was over.

“For the last 10 years, I have ignored false and misleading stories about me and focused on the work,” President Donald Trump’s son-in-law wrote Friday. “But the cycle has gotten out of control where old lies get repeated as fact, new ones get added, and the record becomes increasingly distorted.”

Kushner, who has served as an unofficial Middle East envoy while remaining outside the MAGA administration, said the time has come for him to break his 10-year silence.

“When the truth matters, I’ll put the facts and supporting information out publicly, and people can judge for themselves,” he wrote in an X post.

Kushner then made clear what prompted the unusual public rant.

“CNN published a deeply misleading story and headline suggesting that my diplomatic work in the Middle East somehow benefited investments in Israeli defense companies,” he wrote in a second post on his X account.

CNN reported Thursday that Kushner’s Affinity Partners is the largest shareholder in Israeli financial institution Phoenix Financial, which has investments in companies supplying Israel’s military. The network’s report noted it found no indication Kushner’s diplomatic actions directly affected those investments.

Kushner seized on that finding, arguing Friday that he has no role in deciding what Phoenix buys or sells and that Affinity’s investment predates Trump’s return to office.

“Those facts make for a less provocative headline, but a much more accurate story,” he wrote.

For the last 10 years, I have ignored false and misleading stories about me and focused on the work.

But the cycle has gotten out of control where old lies get repeated as fact, new ones get added, and the record becomes increasingly distorted.

So from time to time, I’m going…
— Jared Kushner (@jaredkushner) October 2, 2026

CNN lawyer spots parts of Trump's Time chat that could wind up in court: 'I was surprised'

An attorney for CNN said he was surprised President Donald Trump didn't seem to know what a federal judge had ordered him to do.

Ted Boutros, who represents CNN in its lawsuit over the White House's restrictions on the network's reporters, told CNN anchor Erin Burnett on Thursday that an exchange in Trump's new interview with Time magazine caught him off guard.

Asked whether he was ignoring an order from U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, Trump told the magazine, "I'm not ignoring his order. I'm just saying that when I don't have to go out of my way, these people write only bad stories."

He then added, "When they say orders, what order? I'm not even aware."

A White House press attaché stepped in at that point. He told Time that the judge "basically ordered them to renew their access back to the White House," which he argued was "different than allowing the pool into the events in the Oval Office or on Air Force One."

"I was surprised by that," Boutros said. "And one would think that the White House counsel and the Justice Department would make sure he knew the consequences of his ban and the order. And it doesn't sound like he does."

Kelly's temporary restraining order is set to expire, Burnett noted. Boutros said CNN would "immediately appeal to the D.C. Circuit" if the judge declines to extend it, and he said he believes a preliminary injunction will be granted.

Boutros previously told the court that Trump "keeps proving our point" and was "really our lead witness." He pointed to the president's repeated complaints that coverage was too negative. Trump did it again in the Time interview, telling the magazine, "You haven't asked me one f— positive question."

Boutros said that part of the interview would be "featured in our argument significantly" in a reply brief CNN plans to file Monday. The government is due to file its brief Friday.

Trump White House shuts CNN out of second presidential trip since judge halted ban: report

The White House dropped CNN from President Donald Trump's Thursday press pool, days after a federal judge blocked his ban on the outlet.

The network had been slated to travel aboard Air Force One and handle on-the-ground pool coverage for the trip, according to a rotation schedule the White House put out Sunday, NBC News reported Wednesday. But CNN was missing from the daily guidance released for Trump's stops, which include a visit to a truck plant in Denton, Texas, and a speech in Durant, Oklahoma.

The exclusion lands less than a week after a federal judge paused Trump's attempt to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. That order, however, covered only access to the White House grounds, leaving the administration room to sideline the outlets elsewhere.

It also isn't the first time since the ruling. Over the weekend, the White House kept CNN off Air Force One during Trump's trip to Tennessee, even though the network had been assigned pool duty.

CNN spokesperson Emily Kuhn confirmed the network had been pulled from the pool but declined to say more. She instead referred to a Monday statement from Theodore Boutrous, the attorney representing all three outlets, who called the ban "a blatant violation of the First Amendment and due process." That statement accompanied the outlets' request that the judge extend his pause.

The White House did not immediately respond to NBC's request for comment.

The press pool is a rotating group of outlets that pool resources to cover the president at home and abroad, with each day's members sharing footage and reporting with the rest of the press corps.

The outlets have drawn wide backing. The White House Correspondents' Association, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 49 media organizations, including NBC's parent company, filed a brief supporting them last week. Fox News, ABC News, CBS News and NBC News also briefly stopped performing pool duties in a show of solidarity with CNN.

Scott Jennings turned 'more and more awkward' before profane CNN blowup: journalist

Conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings grew colder behind the scenes for weeks before cursing at a fellow panelist on live television.

Adam Mockler, the political commentator on the receiving end of that outburst in April, described the buildup on a Wednesday episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" with host Joanna Coles.

Mockler said he and Jennings had been on "a lot of panels over the past few weeks" as the war with Iran slid into "a pretty bad stalemate," with Jennings repeatedly insisting "that the war was going to be over soon and that we were winning."

Off-camera, Mockler said, the mood shifted.

"As I would see him in the green room more and more, he would just be a little bit more disconnected," Mockler said. "When I first started doing these, we would, you know, chat a little bit. Then he would get less chatty, then look at me less."

"Then it just got more and more awkward behind the scenes, and I could tell he felt like he was in a weird position," he added.

On air, Mockler pressed the same question he had asked on earlier panels. "Name one concession we've gotten from the country of Iran," he recalled saying.

According to Mockler, Jennings answered with "isn't it past your bedtime?" and later a dig about masculinity. "Even Abby [Phillip, the host] at the table was like, okay, Scott, you don't have to say that stuff," Mockler said.

Mockler accused Jennings of using the show's time limits to "spew his bulls— and then hope that everybody moves on." He said he refused to "play by those rules" and kept pushing until Jennings shouted, "Get your f— hand out of my face."

Mockler acknowledged gesturing but said his hands were never in Jennings' face. He described Jennings as "very clearly feeling cornered, very immature, and unprofessional."

The tension carried past the segment. Mockler said he joked "no more tantrums" during the commercial break and Jennings "got mad," while fellow panelist Kat Abughazaleh quipped, "I thought you were about to hit him earlier."

Leaving the building, Jennings "was way ahead of me," Mockler said. "I remember shouting, I s— you not, I said, this is not going to look good for you," Mockler recalled. "And then he turned around, and he walked out."

"He's quite thin-skinned, isn't he?" Coles asked.

"I've been doing CNN hits for one year. He's been doing it for a decade," Mockler said. "The fact that he lost his s— due to the Iran war is very indicative of how thin-skinned he is."

Jennings notably defended his actions during an interview on the "Fifth Column" podcast last week by saying Mockler "got a little close to me" and saying he gave him "gentle parenting."

Bari Weiss's CNN takeover in jeopardy as Paramount sours on her: expert

Paramount boss David Ellison has reportedly cooled on CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss after her '60 Minutes' debacle, throwing her CNN takeover into doubt.

Status founder Oliver Darcy made the claim on Saturday's episode of the "Power Lines" podcast, as CNN staffers brace for Ellison's Paramount Skydance to take control of their network within weeks.

Paramount cleared its last major obstacle this week when a dozen states led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta settled their lawsuit blocking its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal required no structural changes, and CNN was not spun off.

Darcy said the long-standing expectation was that Weiss would run CNN's newsroom alongside CBS News.

"The plan had always been, from our understanding and other reporting, that David Ellison was going to put Bari Weiss in charge of CNN's editorial as well as CBS News and The Free Press," Darcy said. "And that was the plan. That's why he bought The Free Press. That's why he brought Bari Weiss and made her editor-in-chief of CBS News."

That plan may no longer hold.

"I'm told Ellison's enthusiasm for Bari Weiss has cooled in recent months, particularly after the CBS News 60 Minutes disaster that she led there," Darcy said.

He added that Paramount has refused to say who will run CNN.

"I've asked Paramount, you've asked Paramount, I think every day this week what the plan is for CNN, and the spokesperson literally says they don't know," Darcy told co-host Jon Passantino.

Darcy argued that sidelining Weiss would amount to a public rebuke of her tenure at CBS News.

"Look, if Bari Weiss is not given control of CNN in some capacity, I think that's sort of a vote of no confidence in her, right? Because that was the plan," Darcy said. "So if they say Mark Thompson's going to remain in charge of CNN, in some cases, that's a really poor reflection on how David Ellison feels that she's been doing at CBS News."

Thompson, CNN's chief executive, has been left in the dark himself. At a town hall this week, first reported by Status, he told anxious staffers he had little to offer.

"I'm afraid this is one of those occasions where you'll find the answers are slightly scarcer than the questions," Thompson said, per Status.

Trump's war on CNN takes flight as network kicked off Air Force One: 'Singled out'

President Donald Trump's Saturday trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, will go without TV pool cameras after the White House barred CNN from traveling aboard Air Force One, The Washington Post reported Friday, citing two people familiar with the decision.

CNN had been scheduled to fly with Trump to a college football game as the network representing the White House TV pool. The White House announced the change Friday night in its schedule and did not list a replacement, meaning there will be no TV pool coverage of the trip, CNN reported.

The move comes just hours after the five-network pool resumed coverage of Trump. CNN's Alayna Treene told viewers on "Anderson Cooper 360" that it was clear CNN was being "singled out."

Trump banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds last week, and a federal judge temporarily restored their access early Thursday. Even so, the three outlets were kept off the grounds for hours that morning, and Senate Republicans ducked questions about whether the president must follow the court's order.

It's unclear how the latest move will affect the outlets' lawsuit. CNN's outside lawyer has said he believes the court-ordered restoration of access covered the White House pool, according to CNN. The judge has given the news organizations until Monday to seek a preliminary injunction, which would keep Trump's ban on hold longer.

The pool, made up of ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News, rotates responsibility for filming the president when space is limited and shares the footage with other outlets. The networks stopped pool coverage on Monday after the White House pulled CNN from its scheduled turn at the United Nations.

"This follows the White House's position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties," Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton, who chairs the TV pool, told the other networks at the time.

The standoff left Trump's Thursday meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping without American TV pool cameras, a situation MS NOW's Jen Psaki called "maddeningly ridiculous." Coverage resumed Friday, with CNN part of the pool when Trump and Xi visited the National Archives.

Press advocates have pushed back on the White House's efforts. "America cannot have state TV," CBS' Weijia Jiang, a former president of the White House Correspondents' Association, said on "Fox News Sunday."

Trump has suggested that The New York Times and The Washington Post could be next.

A CNN spokesperson declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

DOJ files last-minute response to White House media ban lawsuit

CNN reported that the Justice Department responded to the lawsuit against President Donald Trump's media ban just minutes before a court-ordered deadline.

CNN reporter Katelyn Polantz said on Tuesday night that the DOJ filed a last-minute response. The filing argued that "at Donald Trump's will, he should be able to kick whomever he would like out of the White House," and "part of it is because there is national security information kept in the White House," Polantz paraphrased.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico are all suing after Trump banned them from the White House last week. They're asking U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, for a temporary restraining order that would block the ban and restore their press access.

Polantz said that the DOJ's filing "does spell out how they may want to challenge this."

Trump's attack on Kaitlan Collins backfires as CNN and MS NOW use it for lawsuit

President Donald Trump's own words are being used against him as CNN and MS NOW boost their lawsuit against his White House media ban.

On Tuesday, several developments came in regarding CNN and MS NOW's lawsuit against Trump, even as the White House had yet to file its response before a deadline set for the end of the day.

Among the developments was CNN and MS NOW's lawyers adding to the court record Trump's attack against CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins at the United Nations earlier in the day.

Trump told Collins, "You shouldn't be here," because of the White House ban on CNN last week. Collins explained in the moment that she was let in by the United Nations.

MeidasTouch Capitol Hill correspondent Scott MacFarlane reported in a post on X that lawyers for CNN and MS NOW were submitting the statement as an exhibit to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, ahead of a court hearing on Wednesday.

Lawyers for the banned media outlets didn't finish there. Fallon Gallagher, a legal affairs reporter for MS NOW, reported via a post on X that lawyers for CNN and MS NOW, who are also representing Politico, informed Kelly of a D.C. Circuit Court ruling that "held the East Steps of the U.S. Capitol are a 'nonpublic forum' -- much like the White House -- and therefore any press restrictions must be 'viewpoint neutral.'"

The D.C. Circuit Court ruling about the East Steps came from a Trump appointee, who wrote the majority opinion, and was backed by an appointee of George H.W. Bush.

According to Gallagher, "the lawyers are using this ruling as additional evidence in support of the TRO ahead of tomorrow's hearing," referring to the temporary restraining order they're seeking to block the ban.

Meanwhile, Kellie Meyer, the White House correspondent for NewsNation, reported that the White House had no primary TV pool listed for Wednesday, but the secondary TV pool is led by Lindell TV, the outlet of MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, an election denier who lost the Republican primary for Minnesota governor.