White House yanks pass of CNN correspondent
Hours after a fired-up President Trump clashed with the media yesterday in a wild post-midterm press conference, the White House suspended the press pass of CNN reporter Jim Acosta.
The sparring started after Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern U.S. border. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, “That’s enough!” and a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta.
White House press secretary Sarah 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.”
During the tense exchange, Trump told Acosta, “Honestly I think you should let me run the country, you run CNN and if you did it well, your ratings would be much higher.”
Trump also told April Ryan of the Urban National Radio Network to “sit down” and wait her turn. He criticized NBC’s Peter Alexander for backing Acosta.
“It was incredible,” said USC political science professor Bob Shrum, a former top adviser to John Kerry. “I’ve never seen a president do anything like that.”
Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign chief, said on Boston Herald Radio about Democrats feeling emboldened after midterm wins: “We’re starting on the wrong foot.”