While Kaitlan Collins made the worst-dressed list at the 2025 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, her haters have been out in full force for a different reason: her selfie with Republican journalist and CNN colleague, Scott Jennings. Dressed in formal attire, the pair, who have a prickly public history, made time for a little photo op after crossing paths at the event, which Donald Trump decided to skip. In the photo posted to her account on X, Collins smiled happily with Jennings amid a small outdoor crowd. She captioned the surprising snap, “All dressed up with @ScottJenningsKY.” The light-hearted photo oozed none of the usual rancor the journalists have been known to sling, and social media is not pleased.
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All dressed up with @ScottJenningsKY pic.twitter.com/CcmJF7ly6b
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 27, 2025
Collins, an outspoken Trump critic, is used to attracting enemies, but her digital olive branch to Jennings — a very vocal Trump supporter — has her haters attacking her personal ethics. One user, for example, tweeted, “A selfie with Scott Jennings isn’t the flex you think it is.” A second wrote, “Why would you celebrate this disingenuous, dishonest prick?” Meanwhile, a third commented, “You’re a real journalist. Don’t do this, even for #nerdprom.” Collins’ comment section was also full of people criticizing her appearance and theorizing about her and Jennings’ real bond behind the scenes. “This picture proves what we’ve already known. Everything’s a performative game for mainstream media pundits … ” opined actor and podcaster Dash Dobrofsky. “They manufacture outrage on camera for money — which creates division and polarization for the country — then party together afterward. Turn off CNN.”
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Given the journalists’ past interactions, it’s not surprising that folks aren’t reacting well to their selfie.
Kaitlan Collins and Scott Jennings have a complicated history
Kaitlan Collins and Scott Jennings have had several on-air disagreements over the years, making their correspondents’ dinner selfie rather surprising. One example of their back-and-forth occurred in March 2025 when Collins came to the defense of Alencia Johnson, a Democratic strategist, after Jennings misrepresented her words about Elon Musk.
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While appearing on Collins’ “The Source,” Jennings and Johnson discussed whether or not Musk’s influence on the federal budget, which has seen him make extensive cuts under DOGE, would bring back illnesses such as measles. At one point, Johnson said, “You can laugh about this. But these are things that people are actually scared about. I mean, measles is coming back. There’s so many things that are happening that our federal government makes sure” (via Mediaite). However, Jennings interpreted her comments as saying Musk was the cause of the measles resurgence. At the end of the exchange, Collins swooped in to defend Johnson, saying, “She didn’t say that.”
That said, despite their tension, they have proven they can be friendly before. In addition to Jennings calling Collins “the life of the party” at the correspondents’ dinner, he shared an in-studio photo of her on his Instagram in April 2023. It looks like this unexpected rapport between on-air rivals can be added to the list of reasons why so many CNN viewers can’t stand Collins.
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