During a press conference in New Delhi amid his India trip on Tuesday, President Trump had another run-in with CNN’s favorite liberal resistance reporter Jim Acosta. After the biased reporter hurled typically slanted questions, the President told him that he “ought to be ashamed” of having “the worst record in the history of broadcasting.”
The contentious exchange began when Acosta demanded: “I just wanted to follow-up on my colleague’s question about Russian interference. Can you pledge to the American people that you will not accept any foreign assistance in the upcoming election?” Moments later, Trump pushed back: “Okay, first of all, I want no help from any country. And I haven’t been given help from any country.”
The President then called out some of CNN’s recent faulty reporting on the topic that actually had to be walked back: “And if you see what CNN, your wonderful network, said, I guess they apologized in a way for – didn’t they apologize for the fact that they said certain things that weren’t true? Tell me, what was their apology yesterday? What did they say?”
Rather than address the fact the liberal cable channel was forced to admit the case for Russian interference in the 2020 election was “overstated,” Acosta deflected by sneering: “Mr. President, I think our record on delivering the truth is a lot better than yours sometimes, if you don’t mind me saying.”
Trump eviscerated him: “Let me tell you about your record, your record is so bad you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You have probably the worst record – ” Acosta desperately attempted to defend himself: “I’m not ashamed of anything and our organization is not ashamed, sir.”
The President continued: “You probably have the worst record in the history of broadcasting.”
Earlier this month, Acosta launched into a pompous, melodramatic tirade in which he wailed: “The concern I have is that if you have a situation here in the U.S. where a journalist is seriously injured or killed, we cease being the United States of America that we grew up with.”
This is how the alleged “journalist” sees himself, as some kind of hero on a crusade to save America from Trump. Perhaps he should quit reporting and just focus on being a full-time left-wing activist.
Here is a transcript of the February 25 exchange:
7:25 AM ET
(...)
JIM ACOSTA: I just wanted to follow-up on my colleague’s question about Russian interference. Can you pledge to the American people that you will not accept any foreign assistance in the upcoming election? And on this idea of a purge in your administration, there was recently the departure of your acting DNI Joseph McGuire, you replaced him with your ambassador to Germany, Rick Grenell. Some of your critics have pointed out that Ambassador Grenell has no intelligence experience. How can you justify to the American people having an acting DNI with no intelligence experience?
DONALD TRUMP: Okay, first of all, I want no help from any country. And I haven’t been given help from any country. And if you see what CNN, your wonderful network, said, I guess they apologized in a way for – didn’t they apologize for the fact that they said certain things that weren’t true? Tell me, what was their apology yesterday? What did they say?
ACOSTA: Mr. President, I think our record on delivering the truth is a lot better than yours sometimes, if you don’t mind me saying.
TRUMP: Let me tell you about your record, your record is so bad you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You have probably the worst record –
ACOSTA: I’m not ashamed of anything and our organization is not ashamed, sir.
TRUMP: You probably have the worst record in the history of broadcasting. As far as McGuire is concerned, he’s a terrific guy. But you know, on March 11th his time ended anyway, so his time came up. So we would have had to, by statute we would have had to change him anyways. So the time was –
ACOSTA: Will your new DNI have experience in the intelligence field?
TRUMP: I think – yes, yes. In fact, we’re talking to five different people right now. I think all people that you know, all people that you respect, and I’ll make a decision probably over the next week to two weeks. We have some very good people.
But Joe McGuire is a very excellent guy, he is a very good man, and his time was March 11th, I believe it was March 11th where he would have had to leave.
ACOSTA: Was he forced out because he wasn’t sufficiently loyal to you?
TRUMP: No, not at all. Not at all. He was pushed out because frankly – he wasn’t pushed out, he would have had to get out. On March 11th he would have had to leave. But we’re going to be making a decision on DNI very shortly.
(...)
