The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
White House revokes reporter’s press pass after confrontation
The White House has suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and President Donald Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference.
They began sparring after Mr Acosta asked Mr Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern US border.
When Mr Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Mr 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 Mr 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 Mr Acosta and the intern was brief, and Mr Acosta appeared to brush her arm as she reached for the microphone and he tried to hold on to it. “Pardon me, ma’am,” he told her.
After the exchange, CNN, through its public relations department’s Twitter feed, said: “While President Trump has made it clear he does not respect a free press, he has a sworn obligation to protect it. A free press is vital to democracy, and we stand behind Jim Acosta and his fellow journalists everywhere.”
The White House Correspondents Association released a statement on Wednesday saying it “strongly objects to the Trump administration’s decision to use... Secret Service security credentials as a tool to punish a reporter with whom it has a difficult relationship” and “revoking access to the White House complex is a reaction out of line to the purported offence and is unacceptable”.