After shouting at President Donald Trump on Monday because he didn’t get to ask a question at his G-7 press conference, the ever-petulant CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta instead pontificated on At This Hour, knocking Trump’s intelligence by ruling he’s “like a cat chasing a laser pointer, you know, when it comes to trying to get the President to answer a direct question.”
As the President walked away, Acosta could be heard yelling at Trump, wondering why he “didn’t answer the question” about climate change and also presumably out of frustration that he wasn’t called on.
Nonetheless, Acosta had to wait a few minutes before being brought in by weekend New Day co-host Victor Blackwell, who asserted that the President’s comments about inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to the 2020 G-7 Summit was “the cap of inconsistencies and reversals that have been going on for three days now.”
Acosta briefly entertained that topic as well as the Iran nuclear deal and possibly meeting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, but then returned to climate change as “I think perhaps one of the biggest headlines coming out of this press conference that we just witnessed here in France is that the President would not be pinned down on this question of climate change.”
He added his dismay with Trump not answering whether he believes in climate change but instead, in Acosta’s words, “he went on to extol about the virtues of the American energy industry and how he's opened up, you know, the Alaskan National Wildlife — Arctic — National Wildlife Refuge...and so, this was especially the President touting the energy businesses of the United States” instead of addressing “climate change as the Amazon is burning right now.”
As Accuweather’s Jesse Ferrell, Forbes contributor Michael Shellenberger, meteorologist Ryan Maue, and even The New York Times admitted (before backtracking), the Amazon burning isn’t happening directly because of climate change. One can debate climate change, but this is another matter. But none of that was on Fake News Jim’s radar!
This built up to Acosta’s take about Trump being like an easily-distracted cat (click “expand”):
The President skipped a meeting on climate change here at this G-7 summit. And so, you know, as if often the case with these press conferences with the President, you know, it is — it is like a cat chasing a laser pointer, you know, when it comes to trying to get the President to answer a direct question. When he was pressed on whether or not there were these calls with Chinese officials, the President looked over to his treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, who got up in the middle of this press conference and tried to assure all of us that there were these conversations, these calls that went on. But it doesn't sound like they were at the level that they were described to reporters as being when the President was talking to reporters earlier in the day. So this has gone on almost over the last 48 to 72 hours where we've had inconsistency after inconsistency from the President and top officials here throughout the G-7 summit and I think it was fitting at the very end that the President couldn't even be pinned down on this issue of whether or not he believes climate change exists.
“This is a President who was very difficult to get a straight answer from when it comes to some of the very big important issues that were going on at the summit and are going on a regular basis when we’re covering him at the White House,” he concluded.
So if Trump is a “cat chasing a laser point,” what does that make the incredibly pompous Acosta, who behaves as though he’s Captain America on a quest to save the country, one meltdown and whiny book at time?
To see the relevant transcript from CNN’s At This Hour on August 26, click “expand.”
CNN’s At This Hour
August 26, 2019
11:46 p.m. EasternVICTOR BLACKWELL: Well, CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta was there in the room in the front row. With us now. Jim, the President said that certainly he would invite Vladimir Putin and 15 minutes later in the same news conference said I didn't say that. This is the cap of inconsistencies and reversals that have been going on for three days now.
JIM ACOSTA: That's right, and the President just wasn't going to be pinned down on this whole question of whether or not he's going to invite Vladimir Putin. As we know he likes to build the real TV show drama, so perhaps the big reveal will come next year when the President hosts the G-7 summit, perhaps down in Miami as he was talking about during this press conference, at his resort at Doral in Miami, Florida, but I think one of the other major headlines from this press conference, guys, is that the President did say once again that he is open to meeting with the Iranian President — President Rouhani. That is something that could potentially happen down the road, the President said. But I — you know, I have to say I think perhaps one of the biggest headlines coming out of this press conference that we just witnessed here in France is that the President would not be pinned down on this question of climate change. He was just asked in the last several minutes whether he still harbors these questions about whether or not climate change is actually happening. He did not answer that question. When he was asked that question, he went on to extol about the virtues of the American energy industry and how he's opened up, you know, the Alaskan National Wildlife — Arctic — National Wildlife Refuge up in Alaska. And so, this was especially the President touting the energy businesses of the United States rather than really clearly dealing with this question of climate change as the Amazon is burning right now, as was a huge focus here at the G-7 summit. The President skipped a meeting on climate change here at this G-7 summit. And so, you know, as if often the case with these press conferences with the President, you know, it is — it is like a cat chasing a laser pointer, you know, when it comes to trying to get the President to answer a direct question. When he was pressed on whether or not there were these calls with Chinese officials, the President looked over to his treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, who got up in the middle of this press conference and tried to assure all of us that there were these conversations, these calls that went on. But it doesn't sound like they were at the level that they were described to reporters as being when the President was talking to reporters earlier in the day. So this has gone on almost over the last 48 to 72 hours where we've had inconsistency after inconsistency from the President and top officials here throughout the G-7 summit and I think it was fitting at the very end that the President couldn't even be pinned down on this issue of whether or not he believes climate change exists. This is a President who was very difficult to get a straight answer from when it comes to some of the very big important issues that were going on at the summit and are going on a regular basis when we’re covering him at the White House.
BLACKWELL: Yeah, the line that stood out to me, Jim, is that the President said that the United States has a lot of wealth and I'm not going to lose it on dreams, in reference to climate change.
