Hours before President Trump arrived on Monday night at a South Carolina campaign rally with incumbent Republican Governor Henry McMaster, CNN’s chief White House correspondent and carnival barker Jim Acosta faced quite the crowd behind him during a live shot with chants of “go home, Jim” and “fake news Jim,” while one attendee moved from side to side with a “CNN Sucks” sign.
During a live shot in the next hour, Acosta decried the lack of civility by these Trump supporters and highlighted a woman who had heckled him. Responding to her calls for CNN to pack up and leave, he asserted like a true firefighter that “we are here to do our jobs.”
As for the first live shot, Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer wasn’t even able to finish tossing to Acosta before the audio piped in a crowd chanting “fake news Jim” over Acosta’s shoulder, with the “CNN Sucks” sign in plain sight.
Acosta spoke live before his prerecorded immigration report, but he could be barely heard over the people behind him:
That is right, Wolf. President Trump will be campaigning here in South Carolina later on this evening. It is no secret he is going to hammer the issue of immigration until the mid-term elections coming up this fall and even with families being separated with their children at the border, the President believes this issue is a winner for the Republican Party.
When he returned back live, Acosta spoke without hecklers about how some illegal immigrant children had ended up being housed “in foster homes in this state, more than a thousand miles away” from the border.
From there, however, the rally attendees got their acts together and rejoined shouting “go home, Jim” while the man holding the “CNN Sucks” sign moved back and forth across the screen.
“And as you can hear behind me, Wolf, the crowd is very fired up. We have about a couple of thousand people in this room so far, they are letting the press corps here know exactly how they feel about what we're doing here, Wolf,” Acosta claimed.
Nah, Jim. I’m pretty sure that they were just talking about you, and not the rest of the press corp. After all, not everyone in the media can be named Jim.
Fast-forward exactly an hour later and Acosta was peeved that he had gotten a taste of his own medicine: “With all of this talk of civility, Wolf, I can tell you not all of the people in this crowd...treated us with that level of civility that we all think that Americans should be entitled to across this country.”
Acosta then explained his side of the confrontation with an elderly female Trump supporter:
While we have had people come up to us and be nice this evening, I had an elderly woman just a short while's come up to me — we have some video we can show you — where she came up to me and said that we at CNN should get the F out of this auditorium at this high school in West Columbia. She then turned to the crowd and then whipped them up into a frenzy, calling on us to leave before President Trump arrives, Wolf.
In a tone which suggested he fancied himself the most honest, righteous man in America, Acosta concluded, “we are here to do our jobs and report the news and report on this rally and we're not going anywhere, Wolf.”
Blitzer profusely praised him: “Ah, you’re doing an excellent job as well. Thanks very much, Jim Acosta on the scene, where he always is.”
To see the relevant transcript from CNN’s The Situation Room on June 25, click “expand.”
CNN’s The Situation Room
June 25, 2018
5:01 p.m. Eastern
WOLF BLITZER: First, let’s go straight to our chief White house correspondent Jim Acosta. He’s in West Columbia, South Carolina right now. [CROWD CHANTING, “FAKE NEWS JIM!] Jim, the President's hard-line on immigration appears to be getting harder?
JIM ACOSTA: That is right, Wolf. President Trump will be campaigning here in South Carolina later on this evening. It is no secret he is going to hammer the issue of immigration until the mid-term elections coming up this fall and even with families being separated with their children at the border, the President believes this issue is a winner for the Republican Party.
TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEE: Fake News Jim!
(....)
5:05 p.m. Eastern
ACOSTA: Now one sign of just how far the separated children have been removed from parents, consider where we are in South Carolina, Wolf. There are a handful of those separated children who are being cared for in foster homes in this state, more than a thousand miles away. Of course, President Trump will be here later on tonight campaigning for the Governor of South Carolina for another four years, that is Henry McMaster. [CROWD CHANTING, “GO HOME, JIM!”] And as you can hear behind me, Wolf, the crowd is very fired up. We have about a couple of thousand people in this room so far, they are letting the press corp here know exactly how they feel about what we're doing here, Wolf.
BLITZER: Alright, Jim Acosta on the scene for us. Thank you very much.
(....)
6:05 p.m. Eastern
ACOSTA: With all of this talk of civility, Wolf, I can tell you not all of the people in this crowd here in West Columbia, South Carolina treated us with that level of civility that we all think that Americans should be entitled to across this country. While we have had people come up to us and be nice this evening, I had an elderly woman just a short while's come up to me — we have some video we can show you — where she came up to me and said that we at CNN should get the F out of this auditorium at this high school in West Columbia. She then turned to the crowd and then whipped them up into a frenzy, calling on us to leave before President Trump arrives, Wolf. But, of course, as you know, we are here to do our jobs and report the news and report on this rally and we're not going anywhere, Wolf.
BLITZER: Ah, you’re doing an excellent job as well. Thanks very much, Jim Acosta on the scene, where he always is.
