By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-06-23 20:30:46 | Updated at 2026-06-23 21:40:40
1 hour ago
New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman threw some subtle shade at the paper's Washington reporters on Monday during an interview with Jon Stewart.
Haberman lamented how CNN's Kaitlan Collins was 'the only person' to 'routinely' and 'really' challenge Donald Trump during White House briefings and interviews during the Daily Show appearance.
'And she takes an enormous amount of sh*t, and she keeps a total straight face. But she doesn’t have backup,' Haberman added.
No such compliment was paid to the rest of Haberman's team at the Times, which includes Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker and Correspondents David E Sanger, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Annie Karni, Katie Rogers, Tyler Pager, and Shawn McCreesh.
Haberman and the book's coauthor another New York Times White House reporter, Jonathan Swan, were on to plug their new book, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.
The book casts an unfavorable light on Trump's second presidency and is based on more than 1,000 conversations Haberman and Swan had with Trump's aides, advisors, and allies.
Stewart jokingly broke the ice by asking the pair about their sourcing.
After a more serious Haberman declined to answer, the host playfully asked whether the two were 'surprised' by the amount of officials willing to speak up.
Haberman lamented how CNN's Kaitlan Collins was 'the only person' to 'routinely' challenge Donald Trump these days during Monday's edition of The Daily Show
Collins, 34, has cultivated a reputation for her dogged approach to journalism, even when met face-to-face with Trump
'It was really hard,' Swan admitted, while calling attention to what he described a new style of governance from the conservative this time around, with a more refined approach to keeping tabs on information.
'You have to sit there, absorb it, and then pop the reality bubble with a needle,' Swan said of at-times hypnotic rhetoric sported by Trump during press gaggles.
'So why is that?' Stewart suddenly asked.
Haberman, 52, immediately set out on answering.
'Well, it used to be somewhat easier,' she said.
'They have structured this White House, the press corps, so that it is primarily people, or have people, who they consider to be friendly to them.
'They control the media pool that is in there now. They control the seats.'
'Routinely the only person really challenging him aggressively - and not rudely or unprofessionally - is Kaitlan Collins,' she declared.
The admission spawned wave of applause from the New York crowd as Swan sat by her side.
The admission spawned wave of applause from the New York crowd. 'Collins. Kills it,' Stewart said
'Collins. Kills it,' Stewart agreed.
'In the old days, when we would be in the pool - even in [Trump's first term] - and they made it harder, but it was still doable: You’d ask a question, somebody else in the pool would follow up on your question,' Haberman continued.
'Now... it is much more challenging.'
She pointed to Trump's propensity to take phone-calls with reporters these days rather than face a prolonged firing line in public.
'Generally speaking, it’s him setting the agenda,' Haberman said.
'He says one thing here, he says something totally different 15 minutes later, and it’s just him flooding the zone.
'And that’s what he did in New York when he was a tabloid guy.'
Collins, a 34-year-old former Daily Caller correspondent who rose to prominence during Trump's first term, became the youngest chief White House correspondent in CNN's history in 2024.
She also hosts a primetime show on the network, after years of clashes with the president.
Collins's broadcast career took off during Trump's first term, when she was a White House reporter for the conservative Daily Caller and then CNN
During a discussion with comic Hasan Minhaj in November, Collins addressed her fanbase, telling them her job was 'not to take down' the president.
Minhaj had asked whether a tense May 2023 town hall that featured Trump that she hosted was designed 'to win back Republican voters that may have stopped watching CNN.'
'No,' Collins replied, adding 'Trump was very clearly going to be running for office,' she explained.
She said it was her job to report on that possibility, even if the 70 minutes of tense sparring between her and Trump would earn criticism.
Trump's status as the Republican frontrunner was impossible to ignore at the time, she said.
Two months after the event - and being publicly called a 'nasty woman' by the conservative - Collins took over the coveted 9pm slot vacated by Chris Cuomo.
She was promoted to Chief White House Correspondent as part of a broader plan to overhaul CNN's political coverage, Semafor reported at the time.
The shift reportedly sought to lean into the spectacle of Trump's second presidency as opposed to shying away from it.
Collins was initially a White House reporter for CNN during Trump's first term, where she was barred from a Trump press conference after asking a series of questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
She also worked for three years as a Trump-era White House reporter for the right-leaning Daily Caller.
Her salary is in the millions, sources told Puck last June, noting that her annual take-home is roughly 'a fifth' of Anderson Cooper's $18 million-a-year compensation.
Haberman, meanwhile, joined the Times as a presidential campaign correspondent in February 2015, following a stint at Politico.
The Daily Mail has approached the Times for comment.
