CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins was “dis-invited from the press availability” at a White House event on Wednesday after she asked President Donald Trump questions that he apparently didn’t like.

According to the cable news network, Collins’ questions covered Trump’s relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin and recordings made by his longtime attorney, Michael Cohen.

Statement regarding CNN press access at today’s White House event. We demand better. pic.twitter.com/s4lSTcHVak — CNN Communications (@CNNPR) July 25, 2018

New White House employee and disgraced former Fox News executive Bill Shine was involved in the decision to bar Collins, per the Daily Beast.

Trump didn’t answer, and Collins was then summoned to the office of Trump’s new deputy chief of staff for communications — and former Fox News executive — Bill Shine. Collins says he told her she was “disinvited from the press availability in the Rose Garden today” because she had “shouted” questions he and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders deemed “inappropriate.”

Shine was hired to a key communications role in the White House despite his mishandling of numerous allegations of sexual misconduct at Fox News. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes summarized Shine’s tenure at Fox News in a tweet:

Bill Shine oversaw what was, according to many accounts, a harassment reign of terror at Fox News, where Roger Ailes blackmailed, intimidated & harassed woman after woman. Shine's role in maintaining that system of degradation and discrimination ended up costing him his job. — Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) July 25, 2018

The White House Correspondents’ Association condemned “the White House’s misguided and inappropriate decision today to bar one of our members from an open press event after she asked questions they did not like.”


Trump has a long-running vendetta against CNN that includes tweeting a video of him body-slamming the network. His supporters have made a habit of chanting “CNN sucks” and harassing reporters at rallies.