Kaitlan Collins — the CNN anchor who hosted Donald Trump’s incendiary town hall on Wednesday — was under fire on social media over past comments she made about George Soros, articles she wrote at The Daily Caller and anti-gay tweets she posted in college.
The 31-year-old journalist worked at The Daily Caller — the news site founded by Tucker Carlson — between 2014 and 2017 before getting hired by CNN and going on to be a “CNN This Morning” co-host.
Following her moderator role at Trump’s town hall, a clip resurfaced on Twitter of Collins appearing on Fox to slam lefty billionaire George Soros for backing open border policies.
“Soros is this foreign-born, left-wing guy who essentially wants to change the nature of our country,” Collins said during the 2016 interview. “He is a staunch advocate for open borders. He wants people to be able to go wherever they want, whenever they want, for whatever reason. For him, he sees this immigration policy — this crisis — to further his immigration agenda,” she said.
During the same interview, she noted that Soros’s money had also been used to endorse Hillary Clinton and Black Lives Matter, which she called “a problem” that “Americans should be aware of.”
In response to tweets sharing the resurfaced interview clip, users are saying Collins “felt right at home” during the town hall event with Trump.
Another replied to the Fox interview clip saying “it all makes sense now” why CNN made her the moderator.
“It was malpractice putting her there,” another Twitter user wrote, citing “where her heart is” and implying that she’s a Trump supporter. “Guessing Trump picked her,” they said.
Yet another reply to the interview said that CNN giving Collins the moderator role just weeks after firing Don Lemon “tells you the direction they’re going,” suggesting that the notoriously left-leaning network may be swinging right. “I’m not inclined to tune in at all,” the user said.
Another user, meanwhile, slammed Collins for calling Trump “Mr. President” throughout the town hall, claiming she did so because “she’s a Republican” and citing her time working “at the far right-wing Daily Caller.”
Keith Olbermann, the former MSNBC anchor, also took to Twitter to call out a Collins-written Daily Caller article that “mocks both torture and charity fundraising for ALS.”
He was referencing a 2014 headline that read: “Ice Bucket Challenge Hipsters: These Guantanamo Detainees Did It First.” The story likened the then-viral ice bucket challenge — where people dumped ice water on their heads to raise money for ALS — to the waterboarding of Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
“She’s shed that Bama accent, but doubt her beliefs have changed at all,” another user tweeted. Collins — who’s from Alabama, a Republican stronghold state — told InStyle in 2021 that she “had a really apolitical upbringing” in Prattville, a rural town outside of Montgomery.
“Well, well, well…” another Twitter user wrote in a post linking to an old AOL article where Collins apologized for anti-gay slurs she made on the social media site during her college years.
In 2018, Collins publicly apologized for two tweets she posted in 2011 — one of which used the word “fag.”
“Idk if I wanna room with a lesbian,” the other tweet read.
“When I was in college, I used ignorant language in a few tweets to my friends. It was immature but it doesn’t represent the way I feel at all. I regret it and apologize,” Collins wrote in her tweeted apology.
Collins was hired by CNN in 2017, served as the network’s youngest chief White House correspondent and has since become a favorite of the network’s CEO Chris Licht. Following her performance at Trump’s town hall event in New Hampshire on May 10, her future in left-wing media seems bright.
She’s reportedly filling a 9 p.m. primetime slot and is expected to enter new contract agreements with CNN.
If Collins accepts the offer, she would fill the role previously held by Chris Cuomo, who was fired by CNN in 2021 after it was revealed he was helping his brother, then-New York Gov Andrew Cuomo, fight sexual harassment allegations made by his ex-aides.
“I think it’s fair to say Chris Licht and leadership have been impressed,” a source close to network boss told The Post of the rising star.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
