In a New Hampshire town hall Wednesday night watched by more than 3 million people, CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins clashed with former President Donald Trump. He has made it clear he wasn’t a fan of the way the interview transpired.
During an interview with 77 WABC’s Sid Rosenberg Thursday, Trump said things went well for him, but not so much for CNN.
“It turned out well,” Trump said. “We’re getting rave reviews. She’s not. This was not Barbara Walters I was dealing with, let’s put it this way. This was a person who was put there by CNN to do some damage, and she did. She did it to CNN…they tried to go for home run balls and it was really disgraceful.”
Trump’s comments came after Rosenberg called the work done by Collins “disgraceful.”
“I thought she was nasty, to Donald Trump’s point. This was an agenda-driven, biased hitjob for 60 minutes,” Rosenberg said.
“She was trying to get me to say things that are inappropriate to say,” Trump later said when asked about a line of questioning from Collins regarding Roe v. Wade and abortion access. “She was horrible last night. She’s gotten horrible reviews. Just horrible reviews. This will not be Barbara Walters. Barbara Walters in her grave is probably rolling over.”
Reaction to the performance by Collins has been split mostly along party lines. Former cable news host Bill O’Reilly claimed that her inexperience showed during the interview. Meanwhile, CNN colleague Michael Smerconish argued that she did “as well as anyone could have” in the town hall setting.
Although Trump had harsh criticism for Collins Thursday morning, as the New Hampshire event concluded Wednesday evening, they shook hands with a microphone picking up Trump telling her “Thank you very much, Kaitlan. Good job.”
