CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins said White House press secretary Karoline Levitt, who has repeatedly clashed with the media, helped her out of a sticky situation during a presidential trip to Saudi Arabia. (Watch the video below.)
Collins told “Trading Secrets” host Jason Tartick on Monday that during President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May, Collins was hanging out in the press pool when Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and other world leaders walked in.
Reporters customarily do not yell questions at the crown prince like they do at the American president, she noted, so when Trump entered and waved at Collins, she asked him how the meeting went.
“The Saudi Royal Guard was like, ‘You cannot come to the next event,’” Collins recalled. “They were deeply upset that I asked a question.”
Collins, who’s also CNN’s chief White House correspondent, pleaded her case that she shouldn’t be blocked from entering because access is “our No. 1 thing.”
“And to Karoline Leavitt’s credit, she was like, ‘No, Kaitlan’s coming in with the rest of the U.S. press.’ And so I went into the next event. But I think things like that, you know, you can disagree about questions and briefings and whatnot. Press access is key.”
Fast forward to 51:00 for the anecdote:
Leavitt, often the butt of jokes by non-MAGA outlets, played a central role in the administration’s denial of access to news platforms deemed unfriendly to Trump. Breaking with precedent, she announced in February that the White House would decide who covers the president. The move allowed Trump-toadying outfits into the pool while HuffPost was briefly banned from the rotation.
Leavitt may have come to Collins’ defense outside the press room, but their dealings have been tense at times within it. They recently clashed over Trump’s military deployments in blue cities. In a noteworthy exchange earlier this year, Leavitt bristled when Collins asked her if banning the Associated Press from events was retaliation for the wire service not referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
