CNN’s Kaitlan Collins probably expected a friendly and sympathetic audience when she traveled over to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday, but, for a brief moment, Collins and Colbert were caught off guard when the studio audience laughed at the idea CNN is an objective news source.

Collins observed Donald Trump’s campaign ever since President Biden announced he would not seek re-elect, “He really has struggled with how to go after someone who's 20 years younger than him, who is a different gender, a different race. It's kind of been this moment where he has not been able to coalesce around a single attack line.”

 

 

Colbert then tried to switch topics to the reaction inside CNN HQ when Biden made his announcement, “I know you guys are objective over there, that you just report the news as it is.”

As the audience started laughing, Colbert tried to defend the network, “No, CNN makes a—” At the same time, a somewhat surprised Collins asked, “Is that supposed to be a laugh line?”

Colbert claimed, “It wasn't supposed to be, but I guess it is.”

While the duo would go on to discuss whether CNN was surprised Biden stepped down and how reporters should not make bets about the future, Colbert’s defense of CNN is a bit odd. Even Colbert himself was surprised when Don Lemon told him that CNN isn’t liberal nearly two years ago.

The audience reaction, however, does prove that CNN’s insistence that it is a straightforward news channel isn’t fooling anyone, and simply insisting it is will not change that perception.

Here is a transcript for the August 12-taped show:

CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

8/13/2024

12:07 AM ET

KAITLAN COLLINS: He really has struggled with how to go after someone who's 20 years younger than him, who is a different gender, a different race. It's kind of been this moment where he has not been able to coalesce around a single attack line.

STEPHEN COLBERT: I know you guys are objective over there, that you just report the news as it is. 

[Audience Laughs]

No, CNN makes a—

COLLINS: Is that supposed to be a laugh line?

COLBERT: It wasn't supposed to be, but I guess it is. What I wanted to ask is that you guys still have your own feelings and your own bets about what’s going to happen on a daily basis. Did you think Biden was going to step down? Did that take everybody over at CNN by surprise?

COLLINS: I don’t think it took us by surprise. I think as a political reporter, the way to be smart and have a long career is you don't make bets or assumptions. You just follow the story as it happens and, yes, it seemed like the signs were pointing to President Biden stepping down.

COLBERT: So, you weren’t surprised.

COLLINS: Based on what we hearing, but you never really know and Biden, I covered him, he's quite stubborn, and he often feels he's right and other people try to convince him of something and so he will stick it out a little longer than maybe someone else would.