Trump denies doctoring journalist row footage

DONALD Trump has denied suggestions that a White House-released video depicting contact between a staffer and a CNN reporter was altered.

The US President also appeared to threaten to revoke the White House Press credentials of more reporters.

Mr Trump insisted that the video distributed by White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was simply a “close-up” and “was not doctored”. “Nobody manipulated it. All that is is a closeup,” the President said, before attacking the reporter for asking the question and called him “dishonest”.

A frame-by-frame comparison with an Associated Press video of the incident at Mr Trump’s post-election news conference on Wednesday shows that the video tweeted by Ms Sanders appears to speed up CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s arm movement when he makes contact with the White House intern who had been attempting to take away his microphone and had it to another reporter.

The speed-up appears to make Acosta’s gesture more threatening.

Mr Trump, speaking yesterday, also did not back off his administration’s decision to suspend Mr Acosta’s Press credential, which allows the CNN correspondent access to the White House grounds.

“He’s a very unprofessional guy. I don’t think he’s a smart person but he has a loud voice,” Mr Trump told reporters.

“You have to treat the White House with respect. You have to treat the presidency with respect.”

He said he had not decided if Mr Acosta’s pass would be reinstated and suggested there “could be others” who lose their credentials.

He belittled several reporters gathered around him, saying one had asked “a stupid question”, and singling out April Ryan, a correspondent for Urban Radio Networks, calling her “very nasty” and “a loser”.

Ms Ryan, also a CNN contributor, tweeted: “I will continue to ask the questions that affect America, all of America.”