CNN Reporter Scolds Trump on Masks, Then Rips Hers Off When She Thinks Cameras Cut
CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins is on a crusade to meticulously expose which White House personnel are not donning protective face masks.
But while pursuing this hard-hitting story, Collins has unmasked her own hypocrisy.
Collins seems to have taken point on “exposing” the face mask situation among Trump administration officials.
Last week, a photo she tweeted of Vice President Mike Pence wearing his mask that seemed to have been taken from a spy’s perspective through the shrubbery just highlighted the ridiculous nature of this crusade.
Previously, the media had widely criticized Pence for not wearing one during his tour of the Mayo Clinic in April, so it’s easy to imagine her subtle self-satisfaction in thinking that he learned his lesson.
Vice President Pence arrived to the White House in a mask today. pic.twitter.com/qxBcODIYne
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 12, 2020
This was not even Collin’s first tweet on the subject:
After he was criticized for not wearing a mask at the Mayo Clinic earlier this week, Vice President Pence is now wearing a mask as he tours a General Motors facility today. pic.twitter.com/qtAPZcILAO
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 30, 2020
Despite how seemingly important the facial accessory is to Collins, video recently emerged showing her removing her mask while still in the presence of other journalists in the White House briefing room.
The video was captured just hours after an exchange between Collins and Trump during a White House Rose Garden coronavirus media event Friday.
According to Mediate, some officials at the event, including Trump, were not wearing protective masks while others were, which prompted Collins to probe him on the matter.
“Mr. President, can you just clarify, why are some of you wearing a mask and why are some of you not wearing a mask?” Collins asked.
Trump replied, “We’ve all been tested and we’re quite a distance away and we’re outdoors, so I told them, I gave them the option, they could wear it or not.”
“So you can blame it on me, but I gave them the option. We could wear it or not,” he said.
But later that same day, Collins apparently didn’t have the same concern for own mask etiquette as she did for the president in the Rose Garden.
Seconds after White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany ended a news briefing, Collins was seen taking her mask off and walking in somewhat close proximity to other members of the media as she departed the room.
For someone so concerned about face masks just a short time before, she was quick to remove hers, possibly thinking the cameras had stopped rolling.
And her hypocrisy wouldn’t escape the president’s ridicule.
“A CNN faker!” the president wrote in retweeting his son Eric, who had posted the video of Collins removing her mask.
The real story is in Collins’ response to Trump’s comment, which shows her supreme lack of self-awareness.
“Nearly 90,000 Americans have been killed by coronavirus,” Collins wrote in reply to the president, “and the president is tweeting about me pulling my mask down for six seconds on Friday.”
Nearly 90,000 Americans have been killed by coronavirus, and the president is tweeting about me pulling my mask down for six seconds on Friday. https://t.co/UYib8tS7pO
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 18, 2020
Suddenly, Collins spurned the very idea of worrying about face masks, conveniently forgetting her own weeks-long crusade regarding the issue.
Perhaps she should stop worrying about what White House officials are or are not putting on their faces and focus on things that matter instead.
She could spend that extra time reporting on the success the Trump administration has had in procuring enough necessary supplies to deal with the pandemic.
Collins could cover how Washington state dismantled its emergency field hospital that was never even used — a similar phenomenon to what we’re seeing around the country.
The CNN journalist could even report on the praise Democratic governors across the country have heaped on Trump for his responsiveness during the crisis.
Of course this won’t happen, not from the likes of a reporter whose focus on the face-mask issue is nothing more than a last-ditch effort to malign the president amid his otherwise successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s doubtful Collins was worried the president would get people sick — he and Pence are routinely screened for the virus after all, according to Collins’ own network.
Instead, she’s just trying to paint Trump as reckless, uncaring or whatever adjective the establishment media hopes will stick.
Collins’ removal of her own face mask when she thought nobody was watching, and her attempt to deflect from her own actions with a statement that amusingly demonstrated her flagrant hypocrisy, completely confirm the president’s assessment of the network.
The establishment media is a nest of vipers trading in fake news, and Collins is just the latest hypocritical journalist to inadvertently expose this fact.
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