CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta appeared on “CNN Newsroom” Wednesday to respond to his heated exchange with President Donald Trump at his post-election press conference.
Acosta asked Trump about labeling the migrant caravan an invasion, and Trump strongly disagreed with Acosta’s assertion that it was not a threat. After Acosta tried for a follow-up question and began talking over other reporters, Trump let loose.
“I tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them,” Trump told Acosta. “You are a rude, terrible person. “You shouldn’t be working for CNN. You are a very rude person. The way that you treat Sarah Huckabee is horrible. And the way that you treat other people are horrible. You shouldn’t treat people that way.”
CNN host Jake Tapper said being a White House correspondent involves “pissing off” all kinds of people, including the president. He said Acosta had been “aggressive” in his questioning of Trump. (RELATED: Trump Goes Off On CNN’s Jim Acosta At Post Election Press Conference)
“Well, when they go low, we keep doing our job,” Acosta said. “[It] was essentially about this lie that he told before the midterm elections that this caravan of migrants moving from Central America to the U.S. border with Mexico was somehow an invasion, when it’s not. They are still hundreds of miles away and they pose nothing of a threat to the United States.”
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“We just can’t be intimidated by that sort of thing,” he continued. “I was struck by the fact that the president, we thought was going to come in and do this victory lap. It sounded very much like a pity party. The way he was talking about lawmakers that wouldn’t stand by him on the GOP side and various House races. He seems to be sort of unaware of the fact that his immigration rhetoric, and his rhetoric on many levels, was just turning off a lot of those suburban swing district voters.”
Acosta also accused Trump of attacking his “friend” April Ryan because he told her to sit down when it wasn’t her turn.
Acosta then reassured viewers of the media’s good intentions and said the press is a friend to the American people.
“As for being called the ‘enemy of the people’ and so on, Jake, Wolf, all of our folks on the set there with you, I think the American people know we’re friends of the American people,” he said. “We’re going to defend the American people and we’re going to stand up for our rights to seek the truth in this country and the president can call us all the names in the world but we’re just going to keep doing our jobs.”
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