CNN White House reporter Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday responded to the most recent sexual harassment case involving a lawmaker by saying, “the younger women that work for you do not want to date you.” 

Collins was responding to Rep. Patrick Meehan’s (R-Pa.) saying he believes a former employee who has accused him of sexual harassment was his “soul mate.”

“And let this just be a message to all of the grown men out there, that the younger women who work for you do not want to date you, they do not want to be your soul mate, they do not want to go to ice cream with you, they do not want to be your partner,” Collins said. 

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Meehan has denied that he harassed the woman, who was decades younger than him, and denied that he was romantically interested in her.

“That I would find later that that was not something that she was comfortable with really hurts me,” Meehan told The New York Times in an interview. “This was a person who specifically invited communication with me so that she would be able to have the ability to be there for me.”

Meehan used taxpayer money to settle the sexual harassment claim, a settlement that was only revealed last weekend. The amount involved is undisclosed. 

The woman also accused Meehan of becoming “hostile” toward her when she began to date someone outside the office.

“When [women who work for you] start dating someone else you cannot be angry with them for that and try to pay them money to cover it up. I should not have to say that. … When a woman goes to work they don’t want to date their boss,” Collins said.