What to Know
Unfortunately, lots of women can relate to being told to “smile more.” Kaitlan Collins, the CNN reporter who President Donald Trump criticized for “not smiling” when asking a question about sexual assault survivors, understands this. During a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Collins addressed Trump’s questionable attack and deflection attempt.
Earlier this month, Collins asked Trump about the recently released documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. She pushed the president to comment on what he would say to “the survivors who feel like they haven’t gotten justice.”
In response, Trump said she’s “the worst reporter.”
He then went on to claim that CNN has low ratings because of reporters like Collins and said, “You know, she’s a young woman. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile. I’ve known you for ten years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face.” Collins interjected to remind Trump that she was asking about sexual assault survivors, which is why she was not smiling. But Trump, for some reason, thought he could tell Collins why she wasn’t smiling. “‘Cause you know you’re not telling the truth, and you’re a very dishonest organization, and they should be ashamed of you,” he said.
Obviously, this is offensive, but Collins thinks it went viral for a different reason.
When Colbert asked Collins about this interaction, she said she was not overly surprised, given that it’s not the first time Trump has tried to insult her and deflect. What stood out this time, however, was the nature of the question he avoided and the way he went about avoiding it. Because telling a woman to smile more is bad enough, but telling a woman to smile when she talks about sexual abuse is on another level.
Collins said Trump is “often politically savvy or tied in with what his base wants,” but telling her that she should smile more when she asked about the Epstein files did not seem to land in the way he had hoped. “In that moment, I was thinking, you know, if he had said that in response to a different question, I think it would’ve had a different reaction,” she told Colbert. “I think a lot of women can identify with that moment and that feeling, but I think it was actually the question that generated so many headlines out of that, because my question was about sexual assault survivors and it wasn’t even accusatory of the president.”
She doesn’t think she did anything controversial.
After all, why would she smile when asking about such a serious topic? “I don’t think it’s a controversial opinion that you shouldn’t smile when you’re asking questions about a sex trafficker and sexual assault victims,” she added.
As a result of Trump’s attack making headlines, Collins has recently received an onslaught of images that do show her smiling to prove that Trump was wrong about her. Because, you know, she does actually smile sometimes — “when it’s appropriate,” at least. Not that she has to prove that to anyone.
