Outrage after White House bars CNN reporter’s access

The White House has suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and United States President Donald Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference on Wednesday.

They began sparring after Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern US border. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, “That’s enough!” and a woman White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement accusing Acosta of “placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern”, calling it “absolutely unacceptable”. The interaction between Acosta and the intern was brief, and Acosta appeared to brush her arm as she reached for the microphone and he tried to hold onto it. “Pardon me, ma’am,” he told her. Acosta tweeted that Sanders’ statement that he put his hands on the aide was “a lie”.

CNN said the White House revoked Acosta’s press pass out of “retaliation for his challenging questions” on Wednesday, and the network accused Sanders of lying about Acosta’s actions. “(Sanders) provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better,” CNN said. “Jim Acosta has our full support.”

CNN said Trump’s attacks on the press have gone too far. “They are not only dangerous, they are disturbingly un-American,” CNN tweeted after the exchange. The White House Correspondents Association released a statement on Wednesday saying: “Revoking access to the White House complex is a reaction out of line to the purported offence and is unacceptable.”