Kaitlan Collins Totally Humiliated JD Vance With Just One Sentence

It's hardly a secret that there is very little love lost between CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins and the members of the Trump administration. Collins' feud with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been well documented since Donald Trump took office for his second term as president in January 2025. Then, in February 2026, Trump himself escalated his own feud with Collins by grossly chiding the Emmy-winning journalist for not smiling. But who knows — maybe Trump was just trying to get back at Collins for the time she totally humiliated Vice President JD Vance with just one sentence.

The exchange in question, which made for one of Vance's most brutal moments on CNN, actually took place back in May 2024, before the "Hillbilly Elegy" author had even been announced as Trump's running mate. However, the interview received renewed attention on X, formerly known as Twitter, in January 2026, with a reposted version of the clip garnering over 4.8 million views and 111,000 likes at the time of writing. Another boasts over 8 million views and 300,000 likes.

In it, Vance criticizes the demonstrations that were taking place on college campuses at the time against Israel's siege on Gaza and calls for certain demonstrators to face legal consequences. "Okay, so you agree that people who break in and vandalize a building should be prosecuted?" Collins asked. "Exactly," Vance responded. Collins then hit back: "Okay, I'm just checking, because you did help raise money for people who did so on January 6, which was, you know, impeding an official proceeding, breaking into a building that they weren't allowed to be in, and vandalizing the Capitol." One X user couldn't help but laugh (in emoji form), writing, "Vance set himself up for that."

JD Vance's interview with CNN's Kaitlan Collins in May 2024 wasn't the first time he'd been criticized for helping to cover legal costs for people who were arrested for participating in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot — nor was it the last time he would be called out for his apparent hypocrisy on the matter. In November 2022, ahead of that year's midterm elections, Aquilino Gonell, one of the officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, took to X to share a look at the injuries he had suffered at the hands of rioters that day. "As you make your choice on who to vote, remember one party advocated for an insurrection/a coup and condone political violence in their attempt to violate the U.S. Constitution in their quest to hold power," he wrote. Another user by the name of Tim Ryan quoted Gonell's post, adding, "This officer is my friend. JD Vance raised money for the rioters who did this to him on January 6. The choice is clear." Vance was running an ultimately successful campaign to represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate at the time.

Later, speaking on Donald Trump's plans to pardon January 6 rioters in January 2026, then-VP-elect Vance told Fox News that only non-violent protestors who were present that day should be pardoned, while violent ones should not. Shortly after taking office as vice president, however, Vance defended Trump's decision to pardon roughly 1,500 people convicted of crimes related to January 6, including violent ones. "We're not saying that everybody did everything perfectly," Vance said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" at the time, doubling down on his stance that rioters were unfairly prosecuted when pressed by host Margaret Brennan.