An hour after he trumpeted Thursday’s abrupt end of the second U.S.-North Korea summit, CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta appeared in need of a safe space following President Trump’s Hanoi press conference. Acosta wasn’t called on, so he aired his grievances on CNN while falsely suggesting the President had “steered clear largely” of the White House press corps.
Acosta couldn’t even begin with the substance of the press conference, instead complaining to CNN International and PBS host Christiane Amanpour and CNN Newsroom’s Jim Sciutto that “we have to point out the obvious, which is the President steered clear largely during this news conference of the White House press corps and was instead selecting journalists at random from the other side of the room where there were foreign journalists seated.”
Without the facts on his side, Acosta doubled down, not pointing out the fact that this has become par for the course with Trump press conferences:
He didn’t even know who he was calling on. At times, he was calling on reporters from Russian state media, Chinese state media, Sean Hannity from Fox, and largely just avoiding taking questions from the White House press corps. I think that was by design. That was because he didn't want to really answer the questions about Michael Cohen.
Now, here’s the facts. Along with New York Times national security correspondent David Sanger, here were at least six members of the White House press corps from American outlets that were called on: Major Garrett (CBS), Jonathan Karl (ABC), David Nakamura (The Washington Post), Ayesha Rascoe (NPR), John Roberts (Fox News), and Margaret Talev (Bloomberg).
To quote CNN’s snarky motto: Facts First!
Going back to Acosta’s rant, he lamented that the President provided what he deemed an insufficient answer to a question (from Karl) about the Michael Cohen hearing before pivoting back to the summit and how Trump “was a bit more candid” about how the talks broke down with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
In between Acosta calling out the President for bizarrely asserting that Kim was distraught over what his murderous regime did to the late Otto Warmbier, the CNN carnival barker laughably condemned Trump for having “surrendered some of the credibility of the United States, surrendered some of the credibility of the presidency of the United States in exchange for sitting down with a dictator.”
No word if Acosta feels the same way about all of the Obama administration’s meetings with Cuba and Iran.
Although Acosta would again be given more time to spout off, the first portion of this nonsense came to an end with more punditry instead of reporting (click “expand”):
And I think that is perhaps part of the reason why he's willing to hold yet another summit with Kim Jong-un although as you heard there towards the end of this news conference, he said that may not happen for quite a while. It might be, you know, twice bitten, once shy the next time around, Christiane and Jim. He may not be willing to go down this road because he knows he's surrendering some of that stature to be standing on the same stage, sitting at the same table with a brutal dictator and really not showing much for it, but in the end, you know, the President tried during this news conference to steer clear of these Michael Cohen questions. Those are all going to be waiting for him after his long trip back to Washington.
To see the relevant transcript from CNN’s special coverage of the Hanoi summit’s conclusion on February 28, click “expand.”
CNN Special
February 28, 2019
3:04 a.m. EasternJIM ACOSTA: Well, first of all, Christiane, I think we have to point out the obvious which is the President steered clearly largely during this news conference of the White House press corps and was instead selecting journalists at random from the other side of the room where there were foreign journalists seated. He didn’t even know who he was calling on. At times, he was calling on reporters from Russian state media, Chinese state media, Sean Hannity from Fox, and largely just avoiding taking questions from the White House press corps. I think that was by design. That was because he didn't want to really answer the questions about Michael Cohen. One question out of this entire news conference about Michael Cohen was asked of the President and as you heard there in that comment you just played a few moments ago, the President referring to the Michael Cohen testimony as a “fake hearing.” And the president was also cherry-picking what he liked from Michael Cohen's testimony, basically saying he was lying all the way through his entire hearing except for the part where he said that the President, according to the President, was not guilty of any kind of collusion with the Russians.
And so it was a very, you know, sort of Trumpian response to all of that and I think when you talk about what happened with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and the summit falling apart here in Hanoi, the President was a bit more candid about it. He was saying that basically he wanted to walk away from the negotiating table, that Kim Jong-un wanted basically all sanctions lifted in exchange for some drastic reductions to his nuclear program, and the President said he just wasn't willing to do that. You know, one of the questions that I think could have been asked during this news conference and wasn't asked, and I think it’ll be something that's asked going forward, is that the President now for the second time has surrendered some of the credibility of the United States, surrendered some of the credibility of the presidency of the United States in exchange for sitting down with a dictator who claims to be a very good person and so on, but walking away from these negotiations really empty-handed and perhaps the most striking and bizarre moment of this news conference is when he gave Kim Jong-un really a pass on the death of the American Otto Warmbier, at one point saying that Kim Jong-un felt badly about the death of Otto Warmbier. And so he really seems to take the word of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, when it comes to just about any question, you know, that came up during — during this news conference.
And I think that is perhaps part of the reason why he's willing to hold yet another summit with Kim Jong-un although as you heard there towards the end of this news conference, he said that may not happen for quite a while. It might be, you know, twice bitten, once shy the next time around, Christiane and Jim. He may not be willing to go down this road because he knows he's surrendering some of that stature to be standing on the same stage, sitting at the same table with a brutal dictator and really not showing much for it, but in the end, you know, the President tried during this news conference to steer clear of these Michael Cohen questions. Those are all going to be waiting for him after his long trip back to Washington.
