Kaitlan Collins

Collins was born on April 7, 1992, in Prattville, Alabama, a suburb of Montgomery. Her father, Jeff Collins Sr., is a retired mortgage banker who now sells mobile homes. Her mother is Tina Collins. She says that she does not recall her parents voting or expressing strong opinions about political candidates. == Career ==

The Daily Caller (2014–2017) After graduating from college, Collins moved to Washington, D.C., for an internship with the website The Daily Caller. Collins was involved in an incident with the Trump administration on July 25, 2018, when she attended a photo op in the Oval Office as the day's pool reporter. As the event concluded, Collins asked Trump a series of questions about Vladimir Putin and about Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen. Trump ignored her questions. Collins was subsequently barred from a Trump administration press conference in the White House Rose Garden that afternoon and was told by senior White House officials that such questions were "inappropriate for that venue". Trump's press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Collins had "shouted questions and refused to leave"; Trump's deputy chief of staff for communications, Bill Shine, objected to the characterization of the White House's action as a "ban" but "declined to tell reporters what word he would use to characterize the White House's decision to block her from attending the event". At a briefing that took place a few weeks after the election, Trump's Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany refused to take a question from Collins and called her an "activist". At 28, she was the youngest chief White House correspondent in CNN's history, On September 15, 2022, CNN announced that Collins would move to co-anchoring a revamped CNN morning show with Don Lemon and Poppy Harlow, ending her tenure as chief White House correspondent. Before landing the morning show job, Collins was elected to serve as President of the White House Correspondents Association for the 2024-2025 term, a position she relinquished when moving to New York. On October 12, 2022, CNN announced that the morning show would be named CNN This Morning. Collins moderated a town-hall–style event with Donald Trump on May 10, 2023. The event included questions from Republican primary voters in New Hampshire. During that event, while Collins pointed out that Joe Biden—whose home was also searched when classified documents were discovered at the Penn Biden Center—did not defy a subpoena, Trump asked Collins whether she would let him answer the question. Collins said, "Yes, that's why I asked it", prompting Trump to call her a "nasty person". On May 17, 2023, Collins was named CNN's new 9 p.m. ET host, which had been vacant since the firing of Chris Cuomo in December 2021, and her program was scheduled to begin in June. She left CNN This Morning on May 25, 2023; her place there was taken by a rotation of CNN anchors. On November 26, 2024, CNN announced that Collins would return as the network's chief White House correspondent for the second Trump presidency while keeping her primetime post. The Source with Kaitlan Collins On July 5, 2023, it was announced that Collins' new 9 p.m. program would be titled The Source with Kaitlan Collins. The show premiered on July 10. She has been hosting this prime time hourly show on weekdays between Anderson Cooper 360° and CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip. == Awards ==

Collins was included on Forbes's "30 Under 30: Media" list in 2019. In late 2024, Collins was named one of America's 10 best TV news journalists by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. The organization, purveyors of the Dorian Awards to mainstream and LGBTQ-themed content, praised Collins for "fact-checking leaders when they spewed misinformation", and for how she "calmly holds the powerful accountable" on her CNN program The Source with Kaitlan Collins. In 2025, Collins was ranked sixth on Mediaite’s Most Influential in News Media list, calling her a “defining voice in the industry.” During that year, she concurrently anchored The Source with Kaitlan Collins and served as CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent, a dual role that Mediaite noted enhanced both her nightly broadcast and her political reporting. The publication highlighted her reporting depth, on-air interviewing style, and ability to attract a wide range of guests, including figures across the political spectrum. Mediaite also cited her series of high-profile political scoops in 2025 as evidence of her access, credibility, and influence within U.S. news media. == References ==