After an extended silence, CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins has finally responded to accusations of providing material support to the shooter of UnitedHealthCEO Brian Thompson. In an X post, Collins denies the main charge of sharing a fundraising link for the shooter, defending her sharing of a support website due to its being “newsworthy.”
Collins drew broad backlash after her Friday post on X: “Luigi Mangione’s legal defense team has launched a new website today”, along with a link to the website.
Collins didn’t delete the post until after the backlash. Per The New York Post:
CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins apparently deleted a social media post after receiving backlash for appearing to promote a defense fund for Luigi Mangione, the alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer.
In the post on X, Collins showed a link to a new website launched by defense lawyers for Mangione, who faces charges of first-degree murder in furtherance of an act of terrorism, stalking and other state and federal charges in New York and Pennsylvania for allegedly gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024.
Among those who weighed in and condemned the now-deleted post, Larry O'Connor:
ICYMI: @cnn host and White House correspondent @kaitlancollins used her considerable platform to promote a link for the defense fund of a cold-blooded killer.
— L A R R Y (@LarryOConnor) February 16, 2025
She has not yet apologized nor has she posted anything else in 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/67FdCAU2GE
As Stephen Miller notes, the shooter's counsel is (or was at some point) a CNN legal contributor:
Kaitlan Collins omits the fact that Mangione's defense attorney, the same one behind this website she is promoting, is a CNN contributor. https://t.co/6bsfXXFIb0 pic.twitter.com/HiBYGhJr23
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 15, 2025
Ace of Spades succinctly summed it up:
This is @CNN -- pimping the GoFundMe for a leftwing assassin. https://t.co/dXF8emKnQg
— The Reaping Phase (@AceofSpadesHQ) February 15, 2025
Collins remained silent until it was time to react to Post item, at which point she posted:
“This is not true. I posted that his attorneys created a website, which is newsworthy and other outlets have also reported on. In no way did I share a fundraising link for him.”
That last sentence is probably what the fact-checking clique will hold on to for dear life as they try to spin away the fact that Collins lent (before unlending) her considerable platform towards promoting the CEO shooter. This is all too cute by half, given that the “newsworthy” website has its fundraising link at the very top. If you take Collins’ words at face value that she didn’t literally share the fundraising link, then you must concede that she Trojan Horsed it in by sharing the support website under cover of "newsworthiness".
At a bare minimum, Collins is guilty of poor judgment by not reviewing website content before blasting it to her million-plus followers. At worst, she is willfully playing along with a corporate strategy of hyping the shooter to viewers, as evident by the upcoming airing of a shooter special feature on a Warner Brothers Discovery sister network.
In any case, it will be entirely appropriate for The White House to review whether to continue to credential someone who, whether directly or not, shared a fundraising link in material support of an accused domestic terrorist. And before our friends on the left catapult themselves into high dudgeon over this assessment, consider that we’d still be scraping graphite off the roof had a Fox News White House correspondent shared a similar website in material support of a J6 or FACE Act defendant.
