Warning: The following blog contains explicit language.
Conservative media and social media were set ablaze late Thursday night when CNN’s Jim Acosta reacted to a former Trump staffer tweeting “Dear Diary” to his complaint about Trump rallies featuring loud music with a “Fuck you” direct message and a measly apology.
Acosta’s tweet and tirade were further put into context upon seeing the CNN Tonight live shot that showed what — shall we say — triggered CNN’s chief White House correspondent.
He appeared on Don Lemon’s late-night liberal snoozefest to expand upon President Trump’s praise Montana Republican Congressman Greg Gianforte’s body-slam of The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs in 2017 and how that was related to the likely murder and butchering of Saudi dissident columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Neither were acceptable, but the liberal media have spent the past 14-plus hours taking the trollish President’s bait.
Lemon remarked that it was “really in remarkably poor taste with the apparent murder of the journalist in the Middle East” and Acosta agreed that it came as “the whole world is demanding answers from the Saudi government to explain exactly what happened to Jamal Khashoggi,” but the President spent Thursday night “praising” Gianforte’s skirmish.
It was during the first part of Acosta’s live shot that the sparse few left departing the Missoula, Montana Trump rally were listening to a loud recording of what seemed to be a Guns N’ Roses song before it moved to a Trump rally staple in Rolling Stones’s You Don’t Always Get What You Want.
“So, not just once but twice tonight the President is making jokes about assaulting reporters while the whole world is demanding answers about the murder of a journalist who died in the most gruesome and vicious way possible,” Acosta complained.
Acosta then continued, fretting that based on Trump’s jokes and a Trump rally attendee doing “pro-wrestling moves,” he’s “plant[ed] seeds of violence” against journalists (click “expand”):
ACOSTA: Don, also we should point out time and again the President was going after Democrats accusing them of being part of a mob, of being part of an angry mob. I have to tell you, Don, when the President made that joke about Greg Gianforte assaulting Ben Jacobs, I looked over to the crowd. There was one gentleman, a Trump supporter in the crowd, who was doing pro-wrestling moves, doing body slam type gestures in the crowd. So the crowd was obviously eating this stuff up, and people wonder whether or not there's a cause and effect, whether or not the President's rhetoric, you know, plants seeds of violence in his own supporters, in his own crowds. I think it was pretty evident there that the crowd was loving every minute of this when the President was talking about assaulting, joking about assaulting reporters at this rally tonight, Don.
LEMON: An embarrassing performance tonight by the President with those jokes and people cheering him on. Sad.
ACOSTA: Absolutely.
Acosta also fired off this tweet (plus an accompanying one with a link to this stand-up) about the sound levels:
Former director of operations for First Lady Melania Trump Justin Caporale replied “Dear Diary,” which has become a trademark joke to level at most of Acosta’s tweets (many of which pertain to how much Jim Acosta admires Jim Acosta). Moments later, Caporale received a private direct message saying “Fuck you” from the CNN carnival barker.
Caporale demanded an apology, but was then blocked by Acosta. The CNNer eventually tweeted:
Acosta didn’t exactly show remorse Friday morning as he mocked some of the articles pertaining to the hubub he created. So great work, Jim. It’s always about you, I guess.
To see the relevant transcript from October 18's CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, click “expand.”
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon
October 18, 2018
10:12 p.m. EasternDON LEMON: So Jim — Jim, I have to ask you about that comment the President made about Congressman Greg Gianforte's body slamming skills. I mean, that was really in remarkably poor taste with the apparent murder of the journalist in the Middle East.
JIM ACOSTA: That's right, Don. I mean, obviously right now, the whole world is demanding answers from the Saudi government to explain exactly what happened to Jamal Khashoggi. It sounds like he was brutally murdered in the most gruesome possible fashion and here you have the President at one point during his speech praising Greg Gianforte, the Montana congressman who body-slammed Ben Jacobs with The Guardian newspaper. Gianforte actually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in that case and you have the President of the United States, in the midst of that investigation while he’s claiming that — his administration is claiming that they’re going to get serious with the Saudis about all of this, joking that Greg Gianforte is his kind of guy, saying anybody who can body slam somebody is my kind of guy and Don, he not only did this once. He came back to this joke, this bit later on in the rally when he was handicapping the 2020 field going through the various Democrats he might be up against and he recalled when Joe Biden said he would like to take Donald Trump behind a school building or something like that and have a fistfight. The President at one point saying that he would take down Biden faster than Greg would, referring to Greg Gianforte. So, not just once but twice tonight the President is making jokes about assaulting reporters while the whole world is demanding answers about the murder of a journalist who died in the most gruesome and vicious way possible and Don, also we should point out time and again the President was going after Democrats accusing them of being part of a mob, of being part of an angry mob. I have to tell you, Don, when the President made that joke about Greg Gianforte assaulting Ben Jacobs, I looked over to the crowd. There was one gentleman, a Trump supporter in the crowd, who was doing pro-wrestling moves, doing body slam type gestures in the crowd. So the crowd was obviously eating this stuff up, and people wonder whether or not there's a cause and effect, whether or not the President's rhetoric, you know, plants seeds of violence in his own supporters, in his own crowds. I think it was pretty evident there that the crowd was loving every minute of this when the President was talking about assaulting, joking about assaulting reporters at this rally tonight, Don.
LEMON: An embarrassing performance tonight by the President with those jokes and people cheering him on. Sad.
ACOSTA: Absolutely.
