CNN's Jim Acosta and Brian Stelter, with the help of Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota, blasted Donald Trump on Thursday's New Day over the President-Elect's treatment of the media at his Wednesday press conference. Acosta, who got in a face-off with Trump at the event, expressed his "hope...that Donald Trump can get past this...'Clinton News Network, CNN sucks' mentality that we saw out on the campaign trail. The campaign is over. It's time to be president." [video below]
Stelter bewailed how "the environment right now is so far from normal," and asserted that "we're so from the norms of respect when it comes to the President or the President-Elect...saying the right things about respecting the First Amendment." He also played up that his "inbox is stuffed with people thanking you, Jim, for standing there yesterday; and thanking this network for its reporting about Trump and Russia; and thanking the press...yes, there's a portion of the country that distrusts the media. Let's not lose sight of the majority of the public that, I think, really wants and needs this help right now."
Cuomo first turned to Acosta for his reaction to his heated exchange with Trump. The CNN correspondent pointed out that the billionaire was "attacking the credibility of this news organization," and claimed, "I wasn't trying to be rude. I wasn't trying to be disrespectful. I have no constitutional right to ask the President or President-Elect a question. But I thought, in fairness, in that moment, he should have given us a question." Moments later, he speculated about the Trump transition team's strategy for the presser: "I think they came in with a strategy to go in guns blazing; blame the news media for this very difficult story. And, you know, they called him a disruptor...there are times that we're going to have to be disruptors."
The anchor followed up with his own attack on the President-Elect and his aides:
CHRIS CUOMO: ...[W]e got a Tweet from the President-Elect today which, once again, gives us a great example of his desire to run away from what's true. He says, 'James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated.' James Clapper never said, in the statement that was issued publicly, that the intel is believed to be false or fictitious. He says they haven't made any determination on it yet.
Kellyanne Conway, on another morning show this morning, says — emphasizing Clapper did that the intelligence community gave no credibility and veracity to fake news documents. They would never use the term fake news. Otherwise, they would have been silly to include it. They never said that they thought it had no credibility. They never said it had no veracity. Again, they said, they haven't made a determination yet. This is running away from the truth. What is the media to do?
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Stelter replied by hyping that "Trump's aides are misleading people about this at every turn. There is just no way around that." He continued by minimizing BuzzFeed's questionable (to say the least) coverage of the alleged dossier about Trump:
BRIAN STELTER: ...[I]n some ways, they'd rather talk about us; they'd rather talk about the media; they'd rather decry CNN and BuzzFeed and all other outlets that are trying to work on this story — some in very different ways than CNN. They'd almost rather talk about the media than about the facts on the ground. I mean, that was my impression of the press conference. Donald Trump would rather attack the press — attack the messengers — than actually deal with the questions. And this is something I think we should expect to continue — should prepare to continue.
The journalist then dropped his anecdote about his inbox apparently being full of supportive messages, and underlined that "yes, there's a portion of the country that distrusts the media. Let's not lose sight of the majority of the public that, I think, really wants and needs this help right now." After trumpeting the "far from normal" situation between President-Elect Trump and the news media, Stelter underlined that the politician is "continuing to talk mainly to the people that voted for him, and not to the 54 percent of the country that did not vote for him."
Near the end of the segment, Camerota played up that "it will be hard for Mr. Trump to marginalize CNN, because our competitors yesterday stood up for us," and cited Shepard Smith's defense of CNN on his Fox News program. Stelter emphasized that "there's always going to be the Sean Hannity's, who lie about CNN...but Shep Smith is a journalist; and I thought that stand for journalism was really important yesterday."
The full transcript of the Stelter/Acosta segment from the January 12, 2017 edition of CNN's New Day:
CHRIS CUOMO: President-Elect Donald Trump has a formula that works with his base, but not a majority of the country — at least not yet: bad news, attack the media. He tried to shut out CNN at his press conference yesterday. CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta fought for the right to question the President-Elect. Watch. (clip of exchange between President-Elect Trump and Jim Acosta from press conference)
Those were his staffers clapping — not the media, by the way — tells Jim, don't be rude; then, calls him 'fake news.'
Jim Acosta is here, along with CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter. So Jim—
[CNN Graphic: "Trump Refuses To Take Question From CNN's Jim Acosta"]
ACOSTA: Yeah—
CUOMO: How did you feel the dynamic played out yesterday?
[CNN Graphic: "CNN's Jim Acosta On His Heated Exchange With Trump"]
ACOSTA: You know, my feeling was that he was attacking us; and he was attacking us repeatedly. He was attacking the credibility of this news organization — calling us 'fake news.' And I thought well, if he's going to do that, then he should take a question from us. And so, that's why I was being persistent. I wasn't trying to be rude. I wasn't trying to be disrespectful. I have no constitutional right to ask the President or President-Elect a question. But I thought, in fairness, in that moment, he should have given us a question.
CAMEROTA: Well, what happened after that — I mean, I think — you can tell me how you feel — but there has been a real solidarity in most of the press — that we're all in this together. You attack one of us, you attack all of us. You attack the free press. And, in fact, something happened right after that that I want to get your take on it: Cecilia Vega of ABC then, when she was called on, she asked your question. And I know is there this time honored tradition in the press room that if somebody is shouted down, and if the President doesn't answer your question, that somebody else picks up for you?
ACOSTA: There is that tradition. You're right. I don't know exactly — you know, whether or not that was what happened there. I can't say that for sure. If that's the case—
CAMEROTA: You don't know if she had planned to ask that question. But she asked the question for you—
ACOSTA: Exactly. She may have had this question— exactly. And if that's what she was doing, that's wonderful. But yes, in the briefing room, there have been plenty of times where — you know, if Josh Earnest doesn't answer Major Garrett's question — you know, one of us will try to say, 'Hey, Josh, let's go back to that question over here and get an answer on that.' It is a tradition; and I think it's a good one.
But, you know, the story is not about us. The story is about Donald J. Trump. Is he — how is this going to be when he's president of the United States. Is he going to answer the hard questions? And there were lots of hard questions for him yesterday. He was refusing to answer a lot of them. And he was — you know, I think they came in with a strategy to go in guns blazing; blame the news media for this very difficult story. And, you know, they called him a disruptor. At some time — there are times that we're going to have to be disruptors; and that's — that's what we were—
CUOMO: Well, often, a disruption (unintelligible) coming down on the truth these days. And look, we got a Tweet from the President-Elect today which, once again, gives us a great example of his desire to run away from what's true. He says, 'James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated.' James Clapper never said, in the statement that was issued publicly, that the intel is believed to be false or fictitious. He says they haven't made any determination on it yet.
Kellyanne Conway, on another morning show this morning, says — emphasizing Clapper did that the intelligence community gave no credibility and veracity to fake news documents. They would never use the term fake news. Otherwise, they would have been silly to include it. They never said that they thought it had no credibility. They never said it had no veracity. Again, they said, they haven't made a determination yet. This is running away from the truth. What is the media to do?
[CNN Graphic: "Donald Trump Vs. The Media"]
BRIAN STELTER: Trump's aides are misleading people about this at every turn. There is just no way around that. And, in some ways, they'd rather talk about us; they'd rather talk about the media; they'd rather decry CNN and BuzzFeed and all other outlets that are trying to work on this story — some in very different ways than CNN. They'd almost rather talk about the media than about the facts on the ground. I mean, that was my impression of the press conference. Donald Trump would rather attack the press — attack the messengers — than actually deal with the questions. And this is something I think we should expect to continue — should prepare to continue.
We talk a lot about media distrust in this country — low levels of trust in media. The polls have shown it for years. I think we should also note, though, how many viewers want us — want the press — to be challenging power — whether it's Bush, Obama, Trump, and whoever comes after Trump. My inbox is stuffed with people thanking you, Jim, for standing there yesterday; and thanking this network for its reporting about Trump and Russia; and thanking the press and practically begging for more of it. So, yes, there's a portion of the country that distrusts the media. Let's not lose sight of the majority of the public that, I think, really wants and needs this help right now—
ACOSTA: There are a lot of folks out — and there are a lot of folks out there who — who thought we didn't do enough during the campaign—
CUOMO: Sure—
ACOSTA: That we weren't tough enough on Donald Trump — that we gave him too much air time at the beginning of the campaign, and that's — and to the detriment of the other Republicans in the field. So there are lots of hard questions asked about what we do. But I think, at the end of the day — you know, people come up to me and ask me, 'What are we going to do about Donald Trump? You know, what are we going to do about that?' And I say, 'I'm not going to do anything about Donald Trump. I'm going to do the news.' We're going to keeping doing the news, and that's something that's not going to stop. When he goes into the White House, they can kick us out; they can kick us out onto Pennsylvania Avenue; we'll set up our trucks out there, and we'll continue to do those stories out there.
CUOMO: And I'll you what: that's not that hypothetical, based on what Sean Spicer—
CAMEROTA: Did Sean Spicer try to kick you out of the press briefing room?
ACOSTA: He came up to me during the news conference; and he said, 'If you do that one more time, you're out of here.' And I've covered four presidential campaigns — Democrats, Republicans — you know, I asked hard questions of President Obama. You know, one time I asked him, 'Why can't we get the bastards?' — talking about ISIS — they were angry and furious about that for months and months. Listen—
CUOMO: Did you say to him, you got the wrong Latino? I'm not Jorge Ramos. You don't kick me out. I'm working for CNN.
ACOSTA: And you kick me out, I still get to stay in the country. (Cuomo laughs) But, you know, that's never happened to me before; and I think we all have to take a deep breath and de-escalate, and figure out if there's a way where we can work together. Because there's going to be a time when there's a terrorist attack or natural disaster, the White House is going to need the news media to give them time at night and prime time for a presidential address. There are going to be times that we need to ask questions of the President of the United States when something very important is going on.
And so, there has to be a working relationship. So, you know, my hope is that Donald Trump can get past this — you know, 'Clinton News Network, CNN sucks' mentality that we saw out on the campaign trail. The campaign is over. It's time to be president of the United States.
STELTER: And that's the key point. The environment right now is so far from normal. We're so from the norms of respect when it comes to the President or the President-Elect talking — at least, saying the right things about respecting the First Amendment. Trump is still acting like he's campaigning. I think this is what undergirds all of this. Even his Tweet this morning questioning — you know, misstating the facts about Clapper — he is continuing to talk mainly to the people that voted for him, and not to the 54 percent of the country that did not vote for him.
CAMEROTA: I also just want to say one last thing about journalists: and that is that it will be hard for Mr. Trump to marginalize CNN, because our competitors yesterday stood up for us. Shepard Smith—
CUOMO: Shepherd Smith — yes —
CAMEROTA: The highly-respected journalist on Fox News, said — basically said that CNN has great journalists — and we got a scoop — and any network that had our scoop and our reporting would have run—
STELTER: That came from the top of Fox News—
CUOMO: Yeah. I was going to say that. When I read that — what Shepard said — I didn't watch it, but I read it — it seemed like that wasn't just him who was speaking — which is interesting if that's true —
CAMEROTA: Said 'we'—
STELTER: That was the Murdochs — that came from upstairs.
CUOMO: You think so?
STELTER: That came from the leaders of the Fox News Network. Now, there's always going to be the Sean Hannity's, who lie about CNN—
CUOMO: But he's not a journalist!
STELTER: But Shep Smith is a journalist; and I thought that stand for journalism was really important yesterday.
CAMEROTA: Jim, thank you—
ACOSTA: You're welcome—
CAMEROTA: Thanks for all that. Brian, thank you very much.
