The White House has lost it at CNN journalist Kaitlan Collins.
The Source host on Monday flagged the rows of empty seats at President Donald Trump’s rally at the Covelli Center in Youngstown, Ohio, earlier that day as he scrambled for votes for the midterm elections on Nov. 3.
The Daily Beast covered her comments in a story headlined “Kaitlan Collins Humiliates Trump With Video of Empty Seats,” and on Tuesday morning the White House-affiliated Rapid Response 47 X account shared the article, writing, “The only one humiliated here is @kaitlancollins.
“These ‘vacant seats’ had an obstructed view due to the gigantic press risers directly in front of them. Just more Fake News bulls--t.”
“There were roughly... 400 seats there in that arena, there were some empty seats, as you can see, when you look over the top of that,” Collins had said Monday in a conversation with Democratic strategist Karen Finney.
“There isn’t a question of that’s an indication of whether or not there’s less momentum or fervor for the president, hard to know, but he is the one that’s saying there’s these big overflow rooms.”
Trump is “trying to play this off as though this were the 2016 campaign again, or the 2024 campaign,” Finney replied, “and the suggestion that there are all these people on the outside who are dying to get in.”
CNN wasn’t the only news source to note the empty seats, with local station WFMJ reporting that a quarter of the seats had been tarped over. It said only two-thirds of the available seats were filled.
The Washington Post reported that the upper levels were empty, with its reporter Emily Davies posting photos on social media showing what she called “entirely empty sections.”
This is the second time Trump has campaigned in Ohio, a key Senate battleground state in November, along with Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, and Texas, all of which besides Michigan are currently in Republican hands.
CNN’s poll on Sept. 29 puts Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown 6 points ahead of Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican who now holds the seat. The same poll put Trump’s approval at 36 percent.
During his time in Ohio, Trump admired Husted’s physique, referencing a previous meeting between the two men: “He was a great athlete.”
“I don’t do this with men very often. I started examining his body because I didn’t know he was a great athlete,” he swooned.
“And I looked, and I watched up and down, and I looked at his a-- ... and I looked at the whole... and then I looked at his hands, look at his hands, he’s got these, like, claws... and I got it, you are a great athlete.”
On Sunday, Trump bragged about his rallies, writing on Truth Social, “My Rallies, legendary they have already become, have made a tremendous difference with the enthusiasm of the Republican Party.
“They have been waiting for them to happen, even though I never thought I’d have to be doing Rallies again.”
The Collins meltdown comes after the president flipped his lid following a New York Times report that noted empty seats at a rally in Mobile, Alabama.
The Daily Beast has contacted CNN for comment.
