When President Donald Trump arrived at the United Nations on Tuesday and approached to speak to reporters, he noticed the presence of Kaitlan Collins. The CNN anchor and correspondent was there through a UN credential, despite the network’s presidential ban from the White House and the television group. “I’m surprised CNN is here covering me,” Trump said. “You shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t. You shouldn’t be here covering for me. You said you weren’t going to cover for me.” CNN did not say it would not cover Trump. After she was cut from the network’s television pool rotation, the other four networks, including ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and Fox News, said they would suspend their participation, in an act of solidarity. Collins had asked Trump about polls showing that 2/3 of Americans do not believe the United States is winning the war with Iran. The president is at the UN to address the annual General Assembly. RELATED: Reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico denied entry to White House; Colleagues condemn Trump ban Speaking with host Kate Bolduan, Collins noted that all the reporters gathered for Trump’s entrance were accredited by the UN, not the White House. “Since technically CNN should be acting as the group’s representative to the president today, but since he removed us from our assignment and our ability to be able to do so, we will not be traveling with the president here to the United Nations,” Collins said. CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed a lawsuit Monday against Trump and other administration figures, alleging that the president’s media ban violates the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment guarantees of due process. A federal judge set a hearing for Wednesday afternoon. Collins told Bolduan that CNN “never said we weren’t going to cover the president. In fact, it was the president who tried to stop us from being able to cover him, certainly the way we were doing beforehand. Obviously, that’s being fought in court. We will continue to cover the president and his speech, and when he meets with world leaders today, but not with a TV camera from a big five network in the room.” Fox News and the BBC broadcast Trump’s speech live, and MS NOW broadcast the first part of it, while CNN monitored the events and presented other news programming.
