“You Should Not Be Here Covering Me”: Trump Surprised By Presence Of Kaitlan Collins After CNN Gets Credentialed By UN Despite White House Ban

When President Donald Trump arrived at the United Nations on Tuesday and went over to speak to reporters, he noted the presence of Kaitlan Collins.

The CNN anchor and correspondent was there via a UN credential, despite the president’s ban on the network from the White House and the TV pool.

“I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me,” Trump said. “You shouldn’t be here. You should not. You should not be here covering me. You said you weren’t going to cover me.”

CNN did not say that it would not cover Trump. After it was restricted from the network TV pool rotation, the four other networks, including ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and Fox News, said that they would suspend their participation, an act of solidarity.

Collins had asked Trump about polling that showed 2/3 of Americans don’t think the U.S. is winning the war with Iran. The president is at the UN to speak to the annual General Assembly.

Speaking to anchor Kate Bolduan, Collins noted that all the reporters gathered for Trump’s entrance were credentialed by the UN, not the White House.

“Since technically CNN should be serving as the pool representatives with the president today, but given he removed us from our assignment and our ability to be able to do so, we are not traveling with the president here to the United Nations,” Collins said.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed suit on Monday against Trump and other administration figures, alleging that the president’s ban on the outlets violates the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment guarantee of due process. A federal judge has set a hearing for Wednesday afternoon.

Collins told Bolduan that CNN “never said we were not going to cover the president. It was actually the president who tried to stop us from being able to cover him, certainly, the way that we were doing beforehand. Obviously, that’s being fought in the courts. We will continue to cover the president and his speech, and as he meets with world leaders today, just not with a TV camera from one of the five major networks in the room.”