President Donald Trump suggested he may order cameras facing journalists during press briefings turned off in order to mitigate an incentive to showboat, during an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace.
A White House intern reaches for and tries to take away the microphone held by CNN correspondent Jim Acosta as he questions U.S. President Donald Trump during a news conference at the White House in Washington, U.S., November 7, 2018. Picture taken November 7, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
“I think one of the things we’ll do is maybe turn the camera off that faces them because then they don’t have any air time, although I’ll probably be sued for that and maybe, you know, win or lose it, who knows,” Trump said, adding “I mean, with this stuff you never know what’s going to happen.”
Trump’s answer followed a loss for his administration in court against CNN after the White House barred reporter Jim Acosta from the grounds for unruly behavior during a presidential press conference. Acosta refused to surrender his microphone to an intern during a verbal confrontation with the president. (RELATED: CNN Sues The White House Over Jim Acosta’s Revoked Press Credentials)
U.S. President Donald Trump gets into an exchange with CNN reporter Jim Acosta during a news conference a day after the midterm elections on November 7, 2018 in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC. Republicans kept the Senate majority but lost control of the House to the Democrats. (Photo by Al Drago – Pool/Getty Images)
A Judge ruled that the White House did not provide due process in revoking Acosta’s press pass, but noted he did not rule on the First Amendment merits of the case. Trump suggested further in the interview that if Acosta and other journalists do not comport themselves properly he will go back to court and prosecute the case to its fullest extent or simply just end the press conference early.
