The White House has been too tolerant of reporters who try to make themselves the story. That includes Jim Acosta and April Ryan. But on Wednesday Acosta went way beyond the line of human decency. He tried to hijack the press conference.
After asking several questions pertaining to the invaders in the caravans, he refused to let other reporters have their turn and when a White House intern tried to take the mic away from him, he laid his hands on her in order to keep the mic, which led the president to rip him a new gluteus maximus in front of all of his colleagues.
Sarah Sanders announced the suspension:
President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history. Contrary to CNN’s assertions, there is no greater demonstration of the President’s support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not being supportive of a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters over the course of an hour and a half – including several from the reporter in question.
The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it is an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this Administration. As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.
The exchange happened Wednesday afternoon as the president was giving a press conference to discuss the results of the midterm election. Acosta began his question by saying he wanted to challenge him on calling the caravan an “invasion.”
“As you know, Mr. President, the caravan was not an invasion. It’s a group of migrants moving up from Central America towards the border with the U.S. Why did you characterize it as such?” he asked.
“Because I consider it an invasion. You and I have a difference of opinion,” Trump responded. Acosta then asked if he thought he “demonized immigrants” in the midterm election.
Trump responded, “I want them to come into the country, but they have to come in legally. You know, they have to come in, Jim, through a process. I want it to be a process. And I want people to come in. And we need the people.”
After Acosta’s manhandling of the female intern, Trump told him:
“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.”
“I’ll tell you what: CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN.”
“You’re a very rude person. The way you treat Sarah Huckabee is horrible. And the way you treat other people are horrible. You shouldn’t treat people that way.”
Suspended. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving soul.