Trump Tells Kaitlan Collins She's 'a Nasty Person'
Former President Donald Trump pulled out a familiar attack Wednesday night while participating in a live town hall-style event hosted by CNN.
The town hall marked the first of the 2024 presidential campaign for the network and the first time Trump has appeared on CNN since his 2016 presidential run. The event took place in front of registered New Hampshire voters who plan to vote in the Republican primary next year.
Moderator Kaitlan Collins spent much of the night clashing with Trump over his answers, which included false or misleading statements on voter fraud, the Capitol attack of January 6, 2021, and the FBI probe into the classified documents found in Trump's home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Toward the beginning of the event, Trump repeated his theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him due to voter fraud. Collins quickly pushed back on his statement, asking the former president to publicly acknowledge his loss to President Joe Biden. Trump refused to do so.
During another heated moment of the town hall, Collins pressed the former president on why he held onto classified federal documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate even after getting subpoenaed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to return them. Court documents filed in late August show that the DOJ had sent a subpoena to Trump seeking "any and all" classified materials in May 2022, roughly three months before FBI officials raided his Florida home.
Trump deflected Collins' questions by pointing out that Biden was also discovered to have classified documents in his possession in the fall, dating from his term as vice president. Collins, however, pressed harder against Trump, pointing out that Biden had promptly turned over the documents once they were found by his lawyers.
The former president persisted that he was in the right to have the documents, and snapped at Collins as she continued to ask her question.
"Are you ready? Can I talk?" Trump interrupted her.
"Yeah, I would like for you to answer the question. That's why I asked it," Collins responded.
"It's very simple that you are a nasty person," he continued.
Trump has had a history of using the term "nasty" to describe several women, including calling former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a "nasty woman" during a presidential debate when the two were pinned against each other in 2016.
The former president has also used the term to describe Vice President Kamala Harris, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Representative Nancy Pelosi and Meghan Markle.
A CNN spokesperson late Wednesday night told Newsweek, "Tonight Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist."
"She asked tough, fair and revealing questions. And she followed up and fact-checked President Trump in real time to arm voters with crucial information about his positions as he enters the 2024 election as the Republican frontrunner," the statement continued. "That is CNN's role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful to account."
As the program wrapped up, Collins asked Trump if he would commit to accepting the results of the 2024 presidential election "regardless of the outcome." The former president is the front-runner for the GOP nomination, according to several hypothetical matchups.
"If I think it is an honest election, I would be honored to," Trump responded. "Right now we are so far ahead of both Democrats and Republicans, and you know what, if I don't win, this country is going to be in big trouble."
Collins ended the program by thanking Trump for participating in "an important conversation," to which Trump responded while shaking her hand, "Thank you very much, Kaitlan. Good job."
Update 05/10/2023, 11:47 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional comment from CNN.
