Days after CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins became a headline, she sat down with Jon Stewart on Monday night's episode of The Daily Show. Collins shared what it was like inside the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend and her personal strategy to responding to President Donald Trump's insults.
Collins received an award at the annual WHCD, held on Friday night after being rescheduled from April. But the journalist's professional achievement was overshadowed by President Trump's speech that called her out by name.
The president referred to Collins as an "attractive" young woman, but returned to his same old lines about her being part of the "fake news." He also questioned why Collins never smiles before comparing her appearance to that of transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.
It was the lone "highlight" of President Trump's speech, as many observers pointed out how it failed to strike the right tone for the event. It garnered few laughs from the audience while airing out many of the same tired grievances that the public has heard for years.
Collins shared her perspective with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. Stewart asked Collins if the president's speech bombed in the room the same way it sounded on television.
"The room was filled with a lot of his staffers, his cabinet, his allies, Republicans in Congress," Collins said. "It was so quiet in the room during the president's remarks."
Stewart joked that the silence could be attributed to how much they respect President Trump. But Collins' assessment sounded similar to the recap Stewart gave last month when the president attended a New York Knicks game during the NBA Finals. While Madison Square Garden wasn't silent in response to President Trump, Stewart added context to what couldn't be seen on television.
Collins went on to respond to the president's direct attacks on her. Everything from her appearance to her intelligence has been a topic for President Trump to publicly comment on. But Collins has chosen to keep things professional and let viewers at home make their judgments.
"It's not really about me," she told Stewart. "I think it's more effective to remind peole when he is insulting me or criticizing me, about the question I asked or the reporting that I did that he was so angry about," Collins reflected. "In those moments, it's important to put the reminder back on the work, on the question, and on the non-answers that we get."
Anyone who thought Collins would sit down at The Daily Show and roast President Trump or launch her own series of personal attacks probably hasn't been paying attention to how the CNN journalist operates. Clearly, she's happy to let late-night hosts like Stewart or Jimmy Kimmel engage in the back-and-forth with President Trump. Collins' job is a little more important, and she has an obvious strategy for how to protect it.
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