Anderson Cooper Calls Out Trump's Remarks About Kaitlan Collins, Points Out Double Standard for Female Reporters

Anderson Cooper took to the airwaves to respond to President Donald Trump's latest public criticism of his CNN colleague Kaitlan Collins.

During recent remarks, Trump characterized CNN as "a very corrupt organization" and trained his focus on Collins, describing her as "a corrupt reporter standing right there, never smiles." He elaborated on his observations, noting: "A young beautiful woman, never smiles. I never see a smile off her face. I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes, like she has hatred, because we had borders, because we have a strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted, and then we win our election in a massive landslide."

Trump continued his critique in separate comments, saying: "People like you have abused our people so badly. The fake news, like CNN, like The New York Times, and like others, have abused our people, have abused our people so badly. And you should be ashamed of yourself. You used to be a conservative. She was a conservative from Alabama, can you believe it? But CNN in particular does such false reporting, but now they have new ownership, so maybe it'll straighten out, but I doubt it."

On his program Anderson Cooper 360, the veteran journalist pushed back against the President's characterization of his colleague. Cooper labeled Trump's statements "completely unwarranted," emphasizing the unusual nature of the critique.

"That's the president of the United States: a nearly 80-year-old man, who has no problem commenting on her physical appearance and telling her she needs to smile," Cooper said on air.

The CNN anchor then highlighted a critical distinction in how such commentary is handled across the industry. "That doesn't happen to men. No one's ever said that to me in an office setting. She was there, like every other journalist doing her job, standing around with a bunch of non-smiling men, by the way, all behind her," Cooper observed.

Trump has previously directed similar comments toward Collins regarding her facial expressions, and the reporter has responded to such remarks in the past.