Donald Trump Jr. savaged Kaitlan Collins over CNN’s handling of his father, former President Donald Trump — accusing the left-wing media of having “radicalized the people that are trying to kill my father.”
The 46-year-old former first son ripped into Collins on air soon after the vice presidential debate when discussing the highly charged, divisive atmosphere in the run-up to the November election.
He said the media “created so much of that environment.”
“The media has radicalized the people that are trying to kill my father. I’ve had to deal with that twice now, in the last two months,” he said of the double attempts.
“I’ve had to have that conversation with my five young children, twice in the last two months about someone trying to shoot their grandfather,” he said emotionally.
Donald Trump, 78, narrowly avoided being shot directly in the head when a gunman opened fire at his rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13. He was targeted again on his Palm Beach golf course last month.
“You know that didn’t just magically happen. That’s not him, that’s a media-created fake Russia scenario. They ran with it for years. Even when it was disproven, they still ran with it. You know, that environment wasn’t just created by Donald Trump,” his son insisted on CNN Tuesday.
Collins quickly jumped in to defend the media.
“Okay, but, but can I say, you can’t blame — and no one wants — everyone wants your dad to be safe,” she insisted.
“Everyone wants your dad to be safe. No one wants the threats against his life to happen. But you can’t blame the media for those threats. There’s been no evidence.”
Trump Jr. wasn’t having it, telling Collins: “When someone calls — and allows people to have a platform to call someone literally Hitler every day for nine years, it creates it, whether you want to believe it or not. That’s a fact.”
Earlier in the interview, Collins commented that the VP debate between Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was “very civil.”
The candidates mostly “acknowledged when they agreed” and “gave each other the benefit of the doubt,” she noted.
When asked if he would like to see his father engage in more respectful debates, Trump Jr. said he would “love to see that across the board.”
While critics pointed out that Walz appeared nervous and fumbling on the CBS stage, there were multiple moments during the face-off when the opponents seemed able to meet in the middle.
When Walz shared that his teenage son, Gus, witnessed a shooting at a community center, Vance expressed sympathy for the traumatizing experience.
“I’m sorry about that. Christ have mercy. It is awful,” Vance said from the podium.
Walz also acknowledged where he and Vance had common ground on the gun control issue, noting that both of them wanted to end the US’ school shooting epidemic.
“I 100% believe that Senator Vance hates it,” he said of the issue.
