Ex-Trump Spox Tells CNN Trump is ‘Scared’ of Kaitlan Collins, Calls Out ‘Disgusting’ Attack

President Donald Trump’s former White House Deputy Press Secretary, Sarah Matthews, slammed his latest verbal assault on Kaitlin Collins in the Oval Office, calling it “disgusting.”

Trump was answering press questions on Wednesday when he changed direction mid-answer to go after Collins while she stood feet away. The president was asked why he “decided to drop the Anti-Weaponization fund” that the Department of Justice set up after the president settled a $10 billion lawsuit he had brought against the IRS. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche claimed at a hearing on Tuesday that the department was “not moving forward” with the fund.

“So, I love it. I think it’s so important,” said Trump of the fund, before describing weaponization he believed was perpetrated against his supporters and himself, calling it “fake and corrupt.”

He then suddenly called out Collins, calling her a “young, beautiful woman” who has “hatred in her eyes.”

“Some of you will believe it, like CNN will believe is because they knew what was going on. They’re crooked as hell. CNN’s a very corrupt organization, but– with a corrupt reporter standing right there. Never smiles. You never-, she’s a young, beautiful woman. Never smiles. I never see a smile on her face; I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes,” he said. “She has hatred because we have borders, because we have a strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted.”

On Wednesday’s edition of NewsNight, Matthews slammed the comment, claiming that Trump went after Collins because of her talent as a reporter.

“I will say that during my time working as deputy press secretary in the first Trump administration, Kaitlan Collins was the one reporter that scared Kayleigh McEnany and President Trump the most,” said Matthews.

She continued:

There would be times where Kayleigh McEnany wouldn’t even call on Kaitlan Collins at press conferences, at press briefings, because she didn’t want to answer the questions, because Kaitlan Collins is a very, very good reporter. She’s the best at what she does. And I think that’s why you see Trump go after her more ferociously than any other reporter in that room. And it is disgusting to watch him tell a woman that she needs to smile while doing her job. I’ve seen Kaitlin smile plenty of times, but when she’s asking someone a hard hitting question, I don’t think that that means that she has to smile while doing it. And he brings it up time and time again.

And it’s these misogynistic attacks, not just against Kaitlin, you know, he told her today to be quiet while she tried to ask a follow up question. We’ve seen him say, “Quiet piggy,” to a female reporter, another great female reporter, I will add, someone I worked with during my time in the trump administration. And so I wish that we– this wasn’t normalized and that we weren’t desensitized to this type of behavior from the president. But it really is appalling.

Watch above via CNN.

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