All set with his hair sloshed to one side (presumably by the wind), CNN chief White House correspondent and carnival barking extraordinary Jim Acosta reported on Wednesday’s Situation Room ahead of a Trump rally that the President has plunged America “toward a constitutional crisis” while solidifying a reputation as a con-man, turning “the art of the deal...into the art of the conceal.”
Host and Democratic softball pitcher Wolf Blitzer set him up by stating that Trump’s “clearly digging in as his administration seeks to block investigations by congressional Democrats at every turn” and “doing whatever he can to keep records from going public.”
Clearly locked and loaded (while feeling quite proud of himself), Acosta parroted House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in telling viewers that “President Trump appears to be heading toward a constitutional crisis with House Democrats as he continues to hide the Mueller report as well as his tax returns from lawmakers.”
A few segments later, Justice reporter Laura Jarrett pushed back on this hyperbole, so if Jarrett is going to say something, one has to realize the left should pump the brakes.
At any rate, Acosta smirked and delivered the doozy mocking the President’s well-known book heading into the voice-over portion of his report:
The White House is defending the President’s of executive privilege today as it seems the art of the deal has turned into the art of the conceal. Playing a game of hide and seek, President Trump is pulling out all the stops to keep the full Mueller report out of the hands of House Democrats.
“In a retaliatory strike, the President is now asserting executive privilege to block the report's unreleased materials from House Democrats after Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler sought to hold attorney general William Barr in contempt of congress for refusing to hand over what they want,” he added.
After recapping the Trump controversies concerning the Mueller report, whether Don McGahn should testify before Congress, and the President’s tax returns, Acosta ruled as if he weren’t alive in 2015, 2016, or even three decades ago: “Mr. Trump's steep losses in real estate call also into question his main pitch to voters in 2016, that he was a business genius.”
In the next hour, Acosta reiterated his nonsense about “a constitutional crisis” and “the art of the conceal.” How cute.
To see the relevant transcript from CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on May 8, click “expand.”
CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
May 8, 2019
5:10 p.m. EasternWOLF BLITZER: Meanwhile, President Trump, he’s clearly digging in as his administration seeks to block investigations by congressional Democrats at every turn. He’s heading to Florida right now. Let’s go to our chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta. He’s already there on the scene. Jim, the President is doing whatever he can to keep records from going public.
JIM ACOSTA: That's right, Wolf. President Trump appears to be heading toward a constitutional crisis with House Democrats as he continues to hide the Mueller report as well as his tax returns from lawmakers. The White House is defending the President’s of executive privilege today as it seems the art of the deal has turned into the art of the conceal. Playing a game of hide and seek, President Trump is pulling out all the stops to keep the full Mueller report out of the hands of House Democrats.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, if the Mueller report clears you, why not let Congress see all of it, sir?
ACOSTA: In a retaliatory strike, the President is now asserting executive privilege to block the report's unreleased materials from house Democrats after Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler sought to hold attorney general William Barr in contempt of congress for refusing to hand over what they want. In a letter, Barr told the President: “In these circumstances you may properly assert executive privilege with respect to the entirety of the Department of Justice materials that the committee has demanded.” The White House is all but taunting Nadler to take the matter to court.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: You would think for an attorney, Chairman Nadler would be more up on the law. I'm not and I actually feel like I understand it better than he does. [SCREEN WIPE] Chairman Nadler is again trying to violate the law. The President and the attorney general are the ones that are actually upholding it.
ACOSTA: The standoff comes one day after the administration instructed former White House counsel Don McGahn to refuse to cooperate with Nadler's committee prompting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to drop the I-word.
NANCY PELOSI: The President is goading us into — wants to goad us into impeachment. [SCREEN WIPE] Whether it's obstruction, obstruction, obstruction, obstruction of having people come to the table with facts, ignoring subpoenas and the rest every single day. The President is making a case. He's becoming self-impeachable in terms of some of the things that he is doing.
ACOSTA: As for his other big secret, the President is defending his practice of avoiding paying taxes after a New York Times report found he suffered more than $1 billion in business losses in the ‘80s and ‘90s tweeting: “Real estate developers in the 1980s and 1990s, more than 30 years ago, were entitled to massive write-offs and depreciation....You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes....almost all real estate developers did - and often renegotiate with banks, it was sport. The New York Times revealed Mr. Trump was able to avoid paying taxes for much of that ten-year period. The President has bragged about his ability to avoid paying taxes in the past
HILLARY CLINTON [on 09/26/16]: Because the only years that anybody has ever seen were a couple years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax, so if he’s paid —
DONALD TRUMP [on 09/26/16]: That makes me smart. [SCREEN WIPE] I have a tremendous income, and the reason I say that is not in a braggadocios way because it's about time that this country had somebody running it that has an idea about money.
ACOSTA: Mr. Trump's steep losses in real estate call also into question his main pitch to voters in 2016, that he was a business genius.
TRUMP [on 06/16/15]: Our country needs a truly great leader and we need a truly great leader now. We need a leader that wrote The Art of the Deal.
ACOSTA: Now, the President is eager to get to Florida and hold another one of his raucous rallies where his supporters remain faithful to Mr. Trump. Administration officials are sounding just as feisty as they sound very much prepared to take their battle from the hearing room to the courtroom, Wolf.
BLITZER: Jim Acosta joining us from Florida on the scene. We'll see what happens later tonight.
