Learn More About Kaitlan Collins, CNN’S Chief White House Correspondent

CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, is based in Washington, D.C. Collins has broken multiple stories in her coverage of both the Biden and Trump administrations since joining the network in 2017, including key staff departures and consequential policy choices. She has covered and pushed both President Biden and President Trump on the international scene over the last four years. Collins also covered the special Senate race in her native state of Alabama extensively. Learn More About Kaitlan Collins, Chief White House Correspondent in this post:

Kaitlan L. Collins, born April 7, 1992, is the second oldest of four children born in Prattville, Alabama. Jeff Collins, her father, is a mortgage banker. Collins has defined her background as “apolitical,” claiming that she does not recall her parents voting or having strong feelings about politicians.

Collins was named to Mediaite’s list of the 50 Most Influential People in News Media in 2018, 2019, and 2020. In January of 2019, she was named one of Crain’s NewsPro’s 12 to Watch in TV News, as well as one of Forbes magazine’s “30 under 30: Media” in the same year.

Collins came to CNN from The Daily Caller, where she was the White House Correspondent during the Trump administration’s first few months and the 2016 election.

Collins holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama.

How CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Made It to the White House Despite Her “Apolitical Upbringing”

Kaitlan Collins never imagined herself as a journalist, let alone one with a national audience. Despite enduring numerous defeats under the Trump administration, including a widely known ban from the Rose Garden, she rose from the ashes of a, well, fiery four years. Collins, one of CNN’s youngest main White House reporters, tells InStyle that she’s in it for the long haul only a week shy of her 29th birthday.

“To be known for your reporting is the highest compliment,” says the latest Badass Women subject. “When I break a big story or ask the proper question, I always feel the most assured. That one moment is worth hundreds of difficult moments, even if it doesn’t always happen.” When asked about her legacy, she mentions Christiane Amanpour and Barbara Starr, two powerful newswomen who came before her.

You’d think Collins grew up in a political household because she’s a member of the press on the front lines in Washington, D.C., but that’s not the case. She says she “had a fairly apolitical background” growing up in Prattville, Alabama, a rural town west of Montgomery, where she watched largely local news programming. “I think The Today Show was the biggest national news show we watched,” she remarked. Collins claims that neither of her parents have ever voted or shown strong feelings about candidates, presidential or otherwise.

When Collins went to the University of Alabama to study, that all changed — though it wasn’t all straight sailing from there. She picked chemistry as her first major, following in her sister’s footsteps. “At first, I had a lot of trouble,” Collins admits. Collins gave journalism the old college try when she learned science wasn’t her strong suit, and that was the end of it. “I’ve always been a big reader, I like to write, maybe I could try my hand at this,” she recalled thinking.

“I knew it was unusual for a Daily Caller reporter to be invited on CNN at the time, and I was happy that they didn’t seem to mind. They basically saw me as a reporter and thought I asked excellent questions in the briefings, so they invited me on.” Collins didn’t consider working for CNN until the spring of that year, when she met the network’s president, Jeff Zucker, at a White House Correspondents luncheon. “I simply said, ‘thanks for having me on, I really appreciate it, and I know it’s not a given that I’d be on,'” she recalls. “And it all started with that meeting, and it led to some interviews, and a month later, they hired me and brought me on board the White House team.”

Collins believes that if the female reporters of the past taught her anything, it’s that hard effort, not “talent, attractiveness, or money,” pays well. Setting and pursuing goals, even if they appear improbable, lays the groundwork for success. “I simply hope that in the future, I’ll be able to continue to cover significant issues that people care about,” she says. “That’s my current goal: to do the best I can to protect Biden and keep the pressure on. I’m not going to speculate on what will happen next, since I never imagined Donald Trump would become president, or that I would become CNN’s chief White House correspondent. So I’m comfortable not making any predictions and just going with the flow.”