Former President Donald Trump called Kaitlin Collins a “nasty person” during a tense exchange over classified documents during CNN’s New Hampshire town hall.
During a combative back-and-forth over Mr Trump retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Mr Trump and Ms Collins spoke over each other for several moments.
“Do you mind?” Mr Trump said.
“I would like for you to answer the question. That’s why I asked it,” Ms Collins said.
“You’re a nasty person, I’ll tell ya,” Mr Trump responded, which elicited applause from the GOP-leaning audience.
“Can you answer why you held on to the documents?” Collins asked again.
“It’s very simple. I was negotiating and I was talking to Nara (National Archives and Records Administration),” he began, arguing why he believed he was right to have held onto documents the government was looking for.
Collins was unflinching and continued to push back on Mr Trump’s false interpretation of the Presidential Records Act.
Moments later after another contentious back-and-forth between the two over election interference in Georgia, Mr Trump said he would only accept the results of the 2024 election if he thought they were “honest”.
Their allotted time was up and Collins closed out the town hall. The former president shook her hand and told her she had done a good job.
Collins joins the roster of women in public life who he has called “nasty” after they challenge him in some way: Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen... there are were at least 14 incidents documented by The Washington Post as of August 2019.
