Wednesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” network White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins relayed her account of being blocked from a Rose Garden event because the Trump administration allegedly did not like the question she asked President Donald Trump at the conclusion of today’s Oval Office photo op.
Collins said, “I was blocked from attending an open press event because the White House did not like the questions I posed to President Trump earlier in the day. To walk you through what was going on, I was representing the rest of the television networks during this spray, which is what we refer to here in the Oval Office.”
She continued, “I and several others started asking President Trump questions. This is a normal occurrence. It is also our only chance to ask President Trump questions that day. He often responds to us.”
Collins then played the clip of her asking Trump, “Did Michael Cohen betray you?”
She added, “So the questions I asked, in case you couldn’t hear them, is if the president was upset and felt Michael Cohen, his former attorney, had betrayed him by allowing the release of that audio recording. We also asked if he was worried what Michael Cohen would say to prosecutors. He tweeted this morning about Cohen on his Twitter account. I also asked the president why Putin had not accepted his invitation to the White House yet. It was before the White House announced they were going to postpone that meeting until next year. Now, after that was over, the president did not answer questions. He said thank you. We left the Oval Office and later I was called into the office—it was Bill Shine, who is the latest hire and right-hand man for communications and Sanders the press secretary who told me I would not be invited today to an open press event here in the Rose Garden because they thought the questions that I posed to President Trump were inappropriate and inappropriate for that venue. I told them it is our only chance to ask questions. Any reporter would have asked what I asked. I was there to represent all of the networks and asked about the questions of the day along with the other reporters and my colleagues in that room. Because of that, the White House blocked me from going to an open press event here at the White House that all reporters are allowed to go. They did not like the questions that I asked President Trump about the news of the day.”
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