CNN defended its absurd move to sue President Trump for revoking reporter Jim Acosta’s White House press pass, by bringing on a former Obama staffer to tout the network’s credibility. On CNN Tonight November 13, host Don Lemon talked with Obama’s Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton and NYU law professor Burt Neuborne, about the lawsuit, with all three agreeing that the media treated Obama with the same scrutiny they have with Trump.
Noting that they did ask Republican press secretaries to join the segment, but they declined, Lemon began.
“This comes down to press freedom and due process,” he stated bluntly. Lemon read Sarah Sanders’ defense of pulling Acosta’s press pass, before giving the former Obama staffer this leading question: “No doubt there were outlets or reporters that you and the president didn't like. But you didn't take their passes away, did you? Their press pass?”
Burton defended Lemon’s network and the other liberal networks, claiming that the White House correspondents were “very tough” with President Obama, listing off a number of players who are vocal critics of President Trump:
Well, look it wasn't even about who you liked and who you didn't like. There were plenty of people who -- on a personal level you may have a good relationship with, when they were in the briefing room, or they were in press conferences with the president, they were very tough. Jake Tapper from CNN is one of those reporters. He was tough every single time he was in a press conference with President Obama. Jon Karl from ABC, Savannah Guthrie, April Ryan.
Burton even argued that the way CNN treated Obama gave them “credibility” to behave the way they do with Trump, and they had an already established “standard” which didn’t differ from past presidents:
You know, a lot of reporters came in there and were tough with the president, with Robert Gibbs who was my boss at the time. Or me when I was at the podium. That's part of the job. You can't get the kind of answers that the American people deserve without being tough on the person who's answering the questions. And frankly, were it not for them to be so tough with us, they wouldn't have the credibility now to be in that pressroom and say, no, this is the standard, this is how we are with all presidents. And you can't kick them out, as the courts have already ruled. So I do think CNN has a strong case. And this White House is in trouble for yet another reason.
Funny enough, no one seemed to remember President Obama’s war with Fox News and targeting of journalists he didn’t like.
Lemon agreed, adding that Ryan had been a White House correspondent for decades and had not received this kind of treatment before. He went on to list two liberal reporters, Sam Donaldson and Helen Thomas, for being aggressive with President Reagan when he was in office, as some sort of proof that the media doesn’t have an agenda against Trump:
Yeah. Listen, Helen Thomas, Bill, Sam Donaldson. I mean there were irritants to Presidents. I am sure those Presidents who wanted to tell them to sit down. And then this was a press conference for -- do you remember when Reagan said, I paid for that microphone. I mean there are these moments, right? And so I don't understand….
While its true that Jon Karl did occasionally press Obama’s press secretaries, the times reporters did the right thing do not even come close to the amount of times they fawned over President Obama. Nor do they outweigh the daily, constant aggression the current members of the press corps display towards Trump.
