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 my time working as deputy press secretary in the first Trump administration, Kaitlan Collins was the one reporter that scared [then-White House press secretary] Kayleigh McEnany and President Trump the most. There would be times where Kayleigh McEnany wouldn't even call on Kaitlan Collins at press conferences, at press briefings, because she didn't want to answer the questions because Kaitlan Collins is a very, very good reporter. She's the best at what she does, and I think that's why you see Trump go after her more ferociously than any 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 watch him tell a woman that she needs to smile while doing her job," Matthews said. "I've seen Kaitlan smile plenty of times, but when she's asking someone a hard-hitting question, I don't think that means that she has to smile while doing it, and he brings it up time and time again, and it's these misogynistic attacks, not just against Kaitlan. You know, he told her today to be quiet while she tried to ask a follow-up question."
"We've seen him say 'quiet piggy' to a female reporter, another great female reporter, I will add, someone I worked with during my time in the Trump administration, and so I wish that we this wasn't normalized and that we weren't desensitized to this type of behavior from the president," she added. "But it really is appalling. And I just want to give, you know, kudos to Kaitlan Collins."
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