Bill Maher told CNN reporter Kaitlin Collins during a Friday night airing of his show Real Time With Bill Maher that he thinks Vice President Kamala Harris treats the media worse than former President Donald Trump.
“What do you think about the fact that Kamala doesn’t talk to the press?” Maher asked Collins, referring to Harris’ campaign not doing an unscripted interview, yet.
“In a way, I feel like it’s more insulting than what Trump does,” the comedian added. “Trump says, ‘You’re the enemy of the people,’ which is pretty bad.”
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The story was originally reported by Mediaite.
“What she’s kinda saying is, ‘I don’t need you, I’m not talking to you, you’re not relevant anymore,’ to me that’s even worse than ‘I hate you,’” Maher added.
“I don’t know if it’s worse than denigrating the press on a daily basis,” Collins retorted. “Which is what Donald Trump did, I mean, I covered him in the White House every day as a correspondent.”
“And, you know, often times, to kind of shake you if you were asking him a question, he would get into a personal argument with you,” Collins continued. “Or just deny, or lie about what you were asking about, and so I don’t know if I would compare the two.”
Collins was notably banned by Trump from a press conference in 2018 after she asked a question about the Stormy Daniels audio tape.
“I was blocked from attending an open press event here at the White House because the White House did not like the questions I posed to President Trump,” Collins told CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer at the time. “They said that the questions I asked were inappropriate for that venue.”
Trump spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the time that Collins “refused to leave despite repeatedly being asked to do so” and was “shouting questions,” at the president.
Collins qualified she does think Harris “should talk to the press, I think anyone who wants to have access to the nuclear codes should be willing to sit down and take questions.”
Harris shrugged off Fox News reporter Peter Doocy on Thursday as she left the DNC after he asked her if she was “ready for your Fox News interview?”
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article referred to Peter Doocy as Steve Doocy, his father.
