Chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta (CNN) dared President Donald Trump to sit down with him and take questions one on one. During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC, Acosta delivered the challenge.
Kimmel introduced Acosta as “the thorn in the flabby underbelly” of the president and played a clip of his “greatest hits,” including the infamous transition press briefing during which President Trump called him “fake news.”
.@RealDonaldTrump hates this guy! @Acosta @CNN pic.twitter.com/nYnJvIMZyB
— Jimmy Kimmel Live (@JimmyKimmelLive) May 17, 2018
During the interview, Acosta let it slip that both current and former press secretaries, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Sean Spicer, remained cordial to him when the situation was less adversarial. “I try to have a good relationship with them. Sean Spicer was one of my sources before he was the white House press secretary. You know, he took my calls. Even after we had our confrontations, he would take my calls. Sarah does the same as well.”
However, he maintained the opinion that he was often intentionally skipped over during press briefings. “I’m like the island of misfit toys from the old Rudolph cartoon. They do do that. Sean Spicer was the master. He turned off the briefing room cameras for a while. Other hijinks where he wouldn’t call on me during the briefings.”
Acosta even blamed the White House for his outburst at the Easter Egg Roll, saying that they set him up to shout his questions.
“So at the White House Easter egg roll, he doesn’t take questions from me very often. I went out there, determined to get this question to him. First the White House people go, Jim, Jim, CNN, you’re over here. They moved me to this side of the White House south lawn. No Jim, you’re over here. Moved me to this other side. They moved me three times, Jimmy, before I finally was in the spot where they wanted me. And then, out of nowhere, here comes the president. He walked right into a perfect spot by the third time they had moved me, I was in the perfect spot to ask the question. So they had screwed themselves, basically.”
Acosta’s overall conclusion was that the president would never give him a one on one interview — but he still laid out the dare anyway. “I dare him to sit down for an interview with me.”
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