Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) went off on CNN host Kaitlin Collins after he accused her of misleading her audience about a Senate vote to protect in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

“Senate Republicans today blocked a bill that would guarantee access to the very thing that a lot of them say they support,” Collins, who once worked as a correspondent for the conservative Daily Caller, said to begin the segment

“It’s also the very thing that we have heard from Donald Trump say that he supports. Democrats tried and failed again to pass that measure, which would guarantee access to IVF nationwide, and tonight they are using this vote to hammer Republicans who said no,” she continued.

At that, she brought in Cotton, who immediately contradicted her.

“Well, Kaitlan, first off, I have to correct almost everything you said in the lead-in there, almost none of which was accurate about this bill. First off, there’s no risk to IVF in this country. All 49 Republican senators, along with President Trump, support IVF. No state restricts or bans IVF,” he said.

Collins responded with another misleading remark: “I didn’t say that in the intro, but okay, go ahead.”

Cotton picked up on that in his reply:

You said that it had to guarantee access. Access is guaranteed in all 50 states right now. You also said that it was about IVF. It was about a lot more than IVF. This bill would mandate coverage for experimental, controversial procedures like cloning, or gene editing, or providing fertility treatments to men who think they’re women, whatever that means. It would also imperil religious liberty. I support IVF, as President Trump does. We also think that we should allow, say, Christian hospitals to operate fares as they see fit, according to the dictates of their conscience. Now it’s not surprising that Democrats don’t agree with that. They’ve long persecuted Christians, like the Little Sisters of the Poor. They wanted to provide contraception coverage for nuns, or they’ve harassed Catholics for going to traditional masses.

Advertisement

After Collins jumped in, “Okay senator, let’s stop you there,” Cotton snapped, “No Kaitlan, you’re not going to stop me there! Because you’re misrepresenting what the bill is about.”

WATCH:

Last month, HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher challenged Collins over her network’s fawning coverage of Vice President Kamala Harris’ Democratic National Convention acceptance speech while adding that the network appears to most American cable news consumers as being overwhelmingly left-leaning.

Maher began the segment by noting a viral moment from an appearance by Collins on the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” after the host suggested that CNN is fair to both sides of the political aisle.

“He [Colbert] said something like, ‘You guys at CNN just report the news,’ and the crowd burst into laughter,” Maher recalled. “That tells you a lot, doesn’t it?”

Collins, unsurprisingly, offered up a strong defense of her employer. “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,” she said.

“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, referring to former George W. Bush staffer and CNN contributor Scott Jennings. “Lonely Scott, I call him,” Maher said to audience laughter.