‘We Call Out the Lies on Every Side!’

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins defended her network after Bill Maher pressed her on a late night audience laughing out loud when Stephen Colbert referred to CNN as “objective” in front of Collins.

In a Friday interview with Collins, Maher called himself a “big rooter” for CNN and noted his own HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher replays on the network every weekend. He also argued though that many consider CNN extremely biased and he completely understands why.

“That tells you a lot, doesn’t it?” Maher said after bringing up the Colbert moment to Collins on Real Time. “How do you think you guys are doing in that arena of, like, this is a terribly divided country — we’re not only politicized, a lot of people just hate the other side, and CNN, in my view, should be the place where both sides can watch. How do you think you’re doing with that?”

“CNN is the place where both sides can watch, and I think my show is evidence of that. We have lawmakers on from both the parties. We’ll have Elizabeth Warren on one night and we’ll have Ted Cruz on another night. I think lawmakers from both parties should take questions, and you should push both of them,” Collins said.

She continued defending her network, applauding their coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“On CNN being a place of credibility, look at what just happened in Chicago. We had 300 people from CNN on the ground covering that convention, there were several reporters from just our team alone on the floor bringing it in real time to people, and I think CNN puts resources behind things and just brings a level of news that you don’t get anywhere else,” she said.

Maher jumped on this and pointed out his specific issue with the network’s convention coverage.

“I’m talking about the people on CNN and I know what the conservative side of America thinks and I don’t blame them. I watched Kamala’s speech last night. It ended at 8:09 or, I guess, 11:09 in the east. It wasn’t until 11:23 until the one conservative guy, what’s his name?” he said.

“Scott Jennings,” Collins quickly offered.

“Lonely Scott I call him,” Maher said.

“David Urban was there too,” Collins shot back.

“Wait a second, I watch it from 8:09 to 11:23, they were just gushing about how great a speech it was, and I think she did fine, I didn’t think it was as good as they were making it out to be. But if I’m a conservative in America and I’m watching CNN just for the straight middle of the road, that’s what I hear for 15 minutes, that it’s great and then lonely Scott. When you look at the panel, it does look like tokenism. It’s almost the same as The View. It’s almost better to have nobody there like MSNBC,” Maher said.

Collins continued to hold the line, arguing more Democrats were on during the convention because it was a Democratic Party event. She insisted to Maher that she calls out “bullshit” from every side, ultimately leading Maher to say he was moving on from the topic.

“I feel like I can speak with authority on this,” Collins said. “I’m from Alabama, I’m from a very red state, I have a very conservative family, a lot of them who are Trump voters, they watch my show every night, and they know that they can trust me, that we call bullshit on every side.”

Watch above via HBO.