Kaitlan Collins

Biography

Kaitlan Collins is an American journalist, CNN White House Correspondent, writer, reporter and blogger. She is known for hosting 'The Source', a 9 p.m. show. She has been a white house correspondent for CNN from 2021 January to 2022 November. She has been a co-anchor on 'CNN This Morning'

Childhood- Family

Kaitlan Collins was born on 7th April 1992 to Jeff Collins - a Senior Mortgage Banker in Alabama, United States. She grew up in Alabama with four siblings.

Kaitlan is the oldest of the siblings, her siblings are:

• Cole Collins (younger brother)
• Brayden Collins (younger brother)
• Lena Grace Collins (younger sister)

[Kaitlan Collins Family: brothers- Brayden Collins & Cole Collins, father Jeff Collins]

Education

• Prattville High School: Kaitlan attended the public high school located in Prattville, Alabama
• University of Alabama: She went to University of Alabama for her graduation where she first opted for Chemistry, but later moved to political science and journalism. She graduated in May 2014. She was a member of Alpha Phi International Women's Fraternity (ΑΦ)

After her graduation she moved to Washington.

Relationships

Kaitlan Collins & Will Douglas

Kaitlan has been dating Will Douglas, the founder of Crimson Care Pharmacy Care in Texas since 2016.

Image: Kaitlan Collins with Will Douglas

Interesting Facts & Trivia

• Blogger: After her graduation from the University of Alabama Kaitlan tried blogging for a while.
• Writer: Kaitlan has written for various journals and news papers as a freelancer.
• Tours with Trump: Kaitlan has toured Asia with the team of president Donald Trump. She has been to many countries as a part of the press following Trump abroad. (Trip included Beijing, Singapore and others)
• TV appearances: Kaitlan has appeared on various TV & web shows with Ben Shapiro, Ticker Carlson, Brian Williams, Kate Bolduan, Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, Erin Burnett among others.
• Her family has a puppy named Baxter, she calls him her puppy brother.
• 50 Most Influential person in News Media: Mediate (Digital Nes Site) listed her as one of the top 50 among the news figures, for the year 2018. Jake Tapper, Trevor Noah, Rachel Maddow were among the top 50 listed by Mediate. 
• 12 to Watch in TV News: Newspro (Crain Communications) Listed her as one of the 12 from the News media to watch out for in 2019
• Forbes 30 under 30: Media: Kaitlan made it into the Forbes list of 30 influential media people under the age of 30 for the year 2019.
• Youngest chief White House correspondent: At the age of 28 she became the youngest chief White House correspondent in CNN's history. Also among the youngest for any major network.
• Anti-LGBT views in the college days: Log Cabin Republicans- The conservative LGBTQ group, unearthed her old tweets that were anti-LGBT. In one tweet she used the word "fag", another she tweet of her's read "Idk if I wanna (share) room with a lesbian.". She however expressed her changed views and apologized for her old tweets.
• Turtleneck aficionado: She has called herself "turtleneck aficionado" on her instagram biography.
• Surfing: She is a surfing enthusiast.
• Became a Comic strip: Washington post made a comic strip of Kaitlan after the "White house Ban controversy"
• Political inclination: She is a registered independent. Her parents were least interested in politics and believed that political system in the U.S.A is a failure.

Career

Some of the programs she has appeared in are:

• Anderson Cooper 360° (as White House Correspondent)
• Anderson Cooper Full Circle
• At This Hour
• CNN Newsroom (as White House Correspondent)
• CNN Right Now with Brianna Keilar
• CNN Today
• CNN Tonight
• Cuomo Prime Time
• Early Start with Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett
• Erin Burnett OutFront
• Fox and Friends
• Inside Politics
• Media Buzz
• New Day
• Reliable Sources
• State of America with Kate Bolduan
• State of the Union with Jake Tapper
• The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
• The Lead with Jake Tapper
• The Situation Room
• Tucker Carlson Tonight
• Wolf

2014

• The Daily Caller: Kaitlin previously worked for the conservative American news website 'The Daily Caller' as their White House correspondent. She started her career there in June 2014 and was later promoted as the white house correspondent in 2017. She has also worked as their Entertainment section editor.

2017

In April 2017 she had an unexpected chat with the CNN president Jeff Zucker at CNN's annual Sunday brunch held on the same weekend as the White House Correspondents' dinner, it helped her casue in the future, in becoming the white house correspondent.

CNN: Collins joined CNN in 2017, continuing her job as the white House correspondent. 

2018

• White House press conference suspension: She was suspended from a white house press conference, officials claimed that she asked inappropriate questions. White house officials claimed she was shouting and refusing to leave, American news networks however stood in support of CNN reporter on the issue, including the conservative news networks. It is believed that the question was about Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen in relation with Russian president Putin.
• Helsinki summit: She was part of the White House press corps when Donald Trump had a sit down with the Russian president Vladimir Putin in Helsinki

2019

DMZ Summit: She flew to Singapore as part of the White House press corps when president Donald Trump met the North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. It swas the first time any sitting U.S. Persident ever met a North Korean leader

2020

She was working in the White House the day Donald Trump tested positive for COVID in October 2020. [3]

She was promoted to the post of chief White House correspondent to cover the new Biden administration that was taking the reins from the republican party.

2022

She moved to New York City from DC to work as the co-host of the show CNN This Morning with Poppy Harlow and Don Lemon. She eventually got her own prime-time slot. She hosts the show 'The Source'.

2023

CNN Republican Town Hall with Donald Trump: She hosted the TV interview of former president Donald trump at the town hall which was aired on 10th May 2023 on CNN. Poppy Harlow was her co-host on the show. The interview questioned Donald Trump on Trump's handling of government documents, FBI search of Ma-a-Lago.

She was criticized for interviewing Donald Trump, especially at the time when the new sexual harassment cases came to fore against the former president. She defended the interview claiming someone has to interview the republican party nominee. She was caleld a "nasty person" by Trmup for her constant pressing.

She had interviewed Benjamin Netanyahu, just two weeks before the Hamas attack on Israel. Her purpose was to ask Netanyahu that the Israeli press couldn't ask, hold him accountable to his actions.

She visited Israel after the horrific attack of October 7 2023. She covered the firsthand stories of the families affected. she calls it the most painful and also most important coverage of her life.

She interviewed Ukranian president Zelensky and discussed the war with Russia as it reached the 3rd year

She interviewed senator Ted Cruz in May 2023, he was one of the guys who rejected the results of 2020 presidential elections, he was asked if he would be accepting the 2024 results, regardless of what they are.

2024

She interviewed former attorney general Bill Barr and pressed him on how he justifies his criticism of Donald Trump, while also voting for him in 2024.

She hosted Kate Cox, the mother who was forced to flee her state to get an abortion after the fetus was diagnosed with a deadly condition 3 months into pregnancy.

Quotes

• [About her unofficial ban from the white house] I'm from Alabama. I'm not rude.
• [About her anti-LGBT tweets from college days] 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.
• I was never too timid or afraid to call someone I didn’t know or stop somebody on the street and introduce myself. [3]
• Every night I would go home and study and read so much, because I wanted to belong and feel like I deserved to be in the Briefing Room. [3]
• (Reporting is a ) constantly evolving process of perfecting your craft and making sure that you’re getting better every day. [3]
• Part of being a good interviewer is letting [the interview] take you wherever it wants to go and not having a set, rigid path of what you’re definitely going to talk about. It’s also about calling out bullshit when there’s bullshit. [3]
• I’m so careful and prepared when I go on air now.. I make sure I know exactly what I’m talking about, because I know the responsibility and the weight that it carries. [3]

Sources

1. Kaitlan Collins Wiki
2. Huffington Post- Kaitlan's anti-LGBT tweets from college days
3. Elle Interview
4.