Kaitlan Collins of CNN addressed criticism from viewers upset about her moderating a town hall event with Donald Trump in 2023, clarifying that her role was not to undermine the former president.

In a conversation with comedian Hasan Minhaj on his podcast, Minhaj questioned whether the May 2023 town hall was an attempt to regain Republican viewers who might have stopped tuning into CNN.

Collins, 33, responded decisively with a “No,” highlighting that CNN had hosted similar town halls with various presidential candidates, both before and after the Trump event.

She noted, “Trump was very clearly going to be running for office,” emphasizing that her responsibility was to cover this likelihood, despite the 70 minutes of intense debate with Trump that attracted criticism. Trump’s prominent status as the GOP’s leading candidate was something she couldn’t overlook.

When queried about whether the interview aimed to “challenge” or “appease” CNN’s primary audience, Collins replied, “I didn’t think about that.” She explained her approach was to confront Trump, verify his claims, and scrutinize his statements rigorously.

When asked whether the interview was intended to ‘challenge’ or ‘cater’ to CNN’s core audience, Collins said: ‘I didn’t think about that. My plan going in was to challenge Trump and to fact-check him and press him on his statements.’

Minhaj also asked whether members of the crowd cheering on Trump’s barbs threw her off. 

‘You don’t hear the people though who are sitting there who are not applauding who maybe don’t like what his answer was,’ she said.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, 33, was asked about her tense town hall with Donald Trump in May 2023 and whether it designed ‘to win back Republican voters that may have stopped watching CNN’

The May 2023 event in Manchester, New Hampshire, earned criticism from liberals for giving a platform to Trump. It included 70 minutes of tense sparring between Collins and Trump

She added that those reactions ‘foreshadowed” the eventual outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

‘I think in that moment, people thought, “Trump is dead politically. He’s not going to be able to come back, you know, after the way he left office in disgrace. He cannot return.”

‘And actually what that moment showed was there was still a lot of support for Donald Trump. And I think it was jarring for some people to remember that, maybe, and to see that. 

‘But that was reality, and like our job is not to sanitize things and say, “Well, this is what you want the narrative to be,” or, “This is what you want to happen.” 

‘Our job is just to cover it as it happens and to show you what that was, and I think that town hall showed people that, like, my job is like not to take down Trump. I’m a reporter and an anchor.’

The event in Manchester, New Hampshire, thrust Collins into the national spotlight.

She pressed Trump on claims surrounding the January 6 insurrection and the 2020 presidential election being rigged against him, as well as his keeping of documents within his Mar-a-Lago home after leaving the White House following his loss to Joe Biden.

Trump insulted Collins at one point during the conversation, calling her a ‘nasty person.’

Two months after the town hall, Collins took over the coveted primetime slot vacated by Chris Cuomo.

The town hall thrust Collins into the national spotlight, following a yearslong stint as a White House reporter during Trump’s first term

Collins was named CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent in November 2024 

She was named the network’s Chief White House Correspondent in November 2024, as part of a broader plan to overhaul CNN’s political coverage, Semafor reported at the time.

The shift reportedly sought to lean into the spectacle of Trump’s second presidency, as opposed to shying away from it.

Collins was initially a White House reporter for CNN during Trump’s first term, where she was barred from a Trump press conference after asking a series of questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

She also worked for three years as a Trump-era White House reporter for the right-leaning Daily Caller.

Her salary is in the millions, sources told Puck in June, noting that her annual take-home is roughly ‘a fifth’ of Anderson Cooper’s $18 million-a-year compensation.