Who Is Kaitlan Collins? What We Know About The CNN Trump Town Hall Moderator

Donald Trump is slated to take questions from potential voters during CNN’s live town hall event in New Hampshire Wednesday (May 10) evening. The former president is ramping up his campaigning efforts since announcing he will run for re-election in 2024.

This appearance marks Trump’s first time back on CNN since the 2016 election. He previously accused the network of spouting “anger and hatred” toward him through its coverage of his campaign and presidency.

The event will be moderated by reporter Kaitlan Collins, who has had a number of highly publicized tense encounters with the former president.

The stakes of this live appearance are even higher considering Trump is now the first former U.S. president to ever be indicted. On Tuesday, he was also found liable for the battery and defamation of E. Jean Carroll, who claims he raped her in the 1990s.

No doubt Collins will touch on plenty of the former president’s controversies tonight. While we know plenty about Trump, what about the anchor who will be questioning him tonight? Here’s what we know about Kaitlan Collins.

Who Is Kaitlan Collins?

Collins is the co-anchor and chief correspondent for CNN This Morning. She was previously the network’s chief White House correspondent, during which she had multiple tense run-ins with Trump when he was president.

Prior to that, she was also the White House correspondent at The Daily Caller, a publication co-founded by Tucker Carlson, where she covered Trump’s campaign and the beginning of his administration.

As a White House correspondent, Collins was a regular presence at press conferences and in the press pool, meaning she encountered Trump and his cabinet multiple times throughout his presidency.

In 2018, she said White House communications director Bill Shine and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders prohibited her from attending a press conference in the Rose Garden because they felt she had been asking inappropriate questions about Michael Cohen and Vladimir Putin. CNN blasted the decision as “retaliatory” and “not indicative of an open and free press.”

During another encounter in 2020, Trump refused to take more questions from Collins during a press conference.

“No, not CNN please,” he said. “I told you, CNN is fake news. Don’t talk to me.”

On multiple occasions, he avoided taking follow-up questions from Collins when she pressed him for more information. He once even walked out of a press conference after she questioned him.

Considering her fraught history with Trump, tonight’s town hall is sure to be … interesting.

The CNN town hall airs at 8/7c on Wednesday, May 10 on CNN. Looking to tune in? Here’s all you need to know about how to watch Trump’s town hall.