In June 2014, Collins was hired by The Daily Caller as an entertainment reporter; she became the website's White House correspondent in January 2017. In 2017, Collins joined CNN as a White House correspondent. She has traveled with President Trump to at least half a dozen countries. In July 2018, Collins was barred from a Trump administrationpress conference in the White House Rose Garden. Collins said that she was barred from the event after asking Trump questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen in the Oval Office. Collins said she was told by senior White House officials that such questions were "inappropriate for that venue." Trump's press secretarySarah Sanders asserted that Collins "shouted questions and refused to leave," while Trump's advisor Kellyanne Conway said that the action was about "being polite." Trump's deputy chief of staff for communications, Bill Shine, objected to the characterization of the White House's action as a "ban" but "declined to tell reporters what word he would use to characterize the White House’s decision to block her from attending the event." CNN stated that the ban on Collins was "retaliatory" and "not indicative of an open and free press." The White House Correspondents Association called the ban "wholly inappropriate, wrong-headed, and weak." Jay Wallace, president of Fox News, issued a statement in support of Collins, saying that his organization " in strong solidarity with CNN for the right to full access for our journalists as part of a free and unfettered press." In April 2020, she questioned the President about his claim of total authority to manage social distancing restrictions related to the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19. At a White House press briefing later in April 2020, Collins refused to comply with an order by a White House official to exchange a seat closer to the front of the assigned press corp seating with another reporter representing a different news outlet seated in the rear Collins' assigned seat was on the front row, where correspondents representing major networks like CNN, NBC, and others had been assigned seating in the briefing room under social distancing protocol, under a plan managed by the White House Correspondents’ Association and agreed to by White House officials the previous month. Collins' refusal to comply with the order issued by the White House official prompted that official to suggest that Secret Service may be summoned, a development that ultimately did not unfold.
Controversy
In October 2018, old tweets from Collins surfaced where in which she was accused of using homophobic language. In one tweet, she wrote, "Prologue to Canterbury Tales, you fag." In another, she writes that she doesn't know if she wants to "room with a lesbian." She later issued an apology.
Recognition
In 2018, Collins was Mediaite's number 50 Most Influential person in News Media amongst news figures such as Jake Tapper, Trevor Noah, and Rachel Maddow. Collins was named to Crain's NewsPro's 12 to Watch in TV News in January 2019. She was also named one of Forbes magazine's 30 under 30: Media in 2019.
