The White House on Wednesday suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and President Donald Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference.
It all began when Acosta asked Trump for his views on caravan of migrants heading from Latin America. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, “That’s enough!”. After that, a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta.
“President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration. We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable
Sanders in her statement
Counter by the Journalists
Acosta shot back at the accusation of misconduct, tweeting “this is a lie”. His network and a number of Washington journalists who had been at the press conference voiced support for him.
CNN fully supports its employee. In a statement on Twitter, it directly said that “Secretary Sanders lied.” It also said that the press pass suspension was “done in retaliation for challenging questions.” Sanders “provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened,” the US cable network said.
In announcing Acosta’s suspension, Sanders said, “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.”
The blame game has started. It is quite obvious that the reporter is banned for ‘messing with Trump’. On the other hand, Trump administration iterates that they are the supporter of ‘free press’. Really!
That’s hypocrisy at its best. Couldn’t answer the question, lost the calm, no worries, frame the reporter and ban him. Later, play the gender card and make a case. Another trench touched by the Trump administration. Rightfully called the ‘most disliked President of all time’.
