The Trump administration has pulled CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials after a heated exchange with Trump during a press conference on Wednesday. Acosta found out when the Secret Service blocked his entry.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed Acosta’s credentials had been revoked, stating “We will never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern.” Acosta pushed the woman’s arm down as she tried to take the microphone away from him while he was haranguing the president.
I’ve just been denied entrance to the WH. Secret Service just informed me I cannot enter the WH grounds for my 8pm hit
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 8, 2018
…over the course of 1.5 hours including several from the reporter in question. The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it’s an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this Administration
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) November 8, 2018
Social media has predictably erupted in a frenzy, while CNN president Jeff Zucker reportedly tried to reassure Acosta’s colleagues with a memo that read in part that Trump’s “ongoing attacks on the press have gone too far” and “are disturbingly un-American.” Acosta’s canonization as Patron Saint of the Resistance is pending.
Resign from your post. You are clearly incapable of carrying out as Press Secretary the oath you swore to uphold the Constitution.
— John Marble (@JHMarble) November 8, 2018
Trump and Acosta sparred during a press conference earlier Wednesday that culminated in Trump telling the reporter “Honestly, I think you should let me run the country, you run CNN, and if you did it well, your ratings would be much better.” When an intern tried to take the mic from Acosta to let the next reporter ask a question, he continued needling the president, who finally called him a “rude, terrible person.”
Conservatives cheered the administration’s decision to bounce Acosta, who never misses an opportunity to attack the president.
If a conservative journalist behaved as this one did today, wrestling back a microphone from a pres aide, making it all about himself, the collective media outrage would be loud. https://t.co/IAPpbUUZRX
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) November 8, 2018
