The oddest thing about this story is the background of the reporter under attack:
Reporter Kaitlan Collins [of CNN] said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and communications director Bill Shine told her she was banned from a late-afternoon announcement in the Rose Garden involving Trump and European Union president Jean-Claude Juncker a few hours after she sought to question Trump during a press-pool “spray” in the Oval Office....
During the Oval Office event ... Collins sought to question Trump about the release of an audiotape involving then-candidate Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen in October 2016....
“Did Michael Cohen betray you, Mr. President?” Collins asked Trump as reporters shouted questions and White House press aides tried to usher them out of the room.
She repeated the question after Trump declined to answer. After receiving no answer, she asked, “Are you worried about what Michael Cohen is going to say to prosecutors?” She also asked Trump if he is worried about what might be on any other tapes recorded by Cohen, and why Russian President Vladimir Putin had not yet accepted Trump’s invitation to come to Washington.”
Collins works for CNN now, but she used to work for the Daily Caller. At a news conference in February 2017, Trump expressed his contempt for mainstream media outlets by choosing to call on only reporters from the conservative press. One of them was Collins.
For his second straight press conference, President Donald Trump called on only conservative reporters, this time during a joint presser with the Canadian prime minister. By responding solely to friendly press, Trump avoided answering any questions about reports that national security adviser Michael Flynn may have violated federal law.
... Trump [called] on only ... Scott Thuman of the conservative Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s WJLA, the Washington, D.C., affiliate of ABC, and Kaitlan Collins of The Daily Caller....
Collins ... failed to ask about Flynn but did question Canada’s security measures surrounding refugees....
Even Fox News’ national security correspondent, Jennifer Griffin, asked if the queries were “planted questions"...
Subsequently, Collins appeared on Fox and told Howard Kurtz that there was no reason for her to ask the question that might have been asked by, say, CNN's Jim Acosta:
“They’re offended because the question they wanted answered didn’t get asked,” the Alabama native stated. “I wasn’t aware that we were all supposed to go in there and ask the same question.”
“What’s the point of me being here if I’m going to ask the same question as Jim Acosta or Hallie Jackson?”
A few days later, the Caller's Facebook page featured the boast "Sean Spicer Calls On Kaitlan Collins 2nd Time." Collins asked about Trump's claim that paid protesters had disrupted a Milo Yiannopoulos event in Berkeley.
The Daily Caller asked the press secretary Friday if the White House would investigate the “professional anarchists and paid protesters.”
“I think we know who they are,” Spicer said. “I don’t know that we need to do an investigation.”
As a Daily Caller reporter, Collins was useful to the White House. Now she's at CNN. Now she's the enemy.
(Originally published at No More Mr. Nice Blog)
