On Tuesday, CNN’s Jim Acosta spent his final day as chief White House correspondent reveling in having accomplished his life’s mission of celebrating himself and playing the role of general in helping to removing President Trump from office, a man he’s so deeply hated.
As Acosta and CNN shared on January 11, he’ll leave the White House beat to become a weekend anchor (presumably of CNN Newsroom) and take on the title of “chief domestic correspondent.”
Acosta was in a jovial mood, tweeting this caption alongside a selfie with NBC’s Peter Alexander: “Just a couple of guys covering the WH on the last full day of Trump admin. Think we will finally have time for that drink now @PeterAlexander?”
In another tweet, Acosta insinuated symbolism in the departure of the Orange Man: “Light rising from the National Mall behind the Trump WH where a final ‘lid’ for this president has been called.”
NewsBusters combed through our archives to find the 15 worst Acosta moments over the past four years. Trust us, this wasn’t easy and more than a few were left on the cutting room floor. But here there are, presented in chronological order.
1. January 11, 2017— Donald Trump Blasts ‘Fake News’ CNN, Spars With Reporter
Arguably, this started it all. In a transition press conference, Acosta brought proceedings to a halt after Trump called out CNN and BuzzFeed for having reported and (in the case of the latter) leaked the dubious Steele dossier to help kickstart the years-long campaign to assert Trump was an illegitimate President.
When Acosta continued to interrupt another reporter trying to ask a question, Trump repeatedly told him to be “quiet” before concluding: “Don’t be rude. No, I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news.”
2. April 12, 2017— CNN’s Acosta Rules It’s Un-American to Slam CNN, News Media; Doesn’t Regret Screaming at Trump
Only about three months into the administration, Acosta and his colleagues were behaving as if they had stormed the beaches of Normandy and defeated the Confederacy at Gettysburg.
Appearing at the Newseum with three other liberal White House reporters (plus Breitbart’s Charlie Spiering and Fox News’s Bret Baier), Acosta insisted he believed in “speaking truth to power...and I think that’s what we at CNN and I think my colleagues here try to do every day.”
Acosta also claimed during this event that criticizing the news media and doing things like changing “CNN sucks” were un-American and doing “real damage” to the country.
3. June 19, 2017— Acosta Loses It Over No Audio, No Video WH Briefing; ‘Don't Know What World We're Living In’
For a short stretch in 2017, then-WH Press Secretary Sean Spicer turned the cameras off during briefings and, predictably, showboating hacks like Acosta were enraged.
Acosta unleashed after one such briefing to Brooke Baldwin: “It's bizarre, I don't know what world we're living in right now, Brooke, where we're standing at the White House....and they won't answer these questions on camera, or let us record the audio.”
4. August 2, 2017 — The White House's Stephen Miller Destroys CNN: ‘Cosmopolitan,’ ‘Outrageous,’ ‘Ignorant,’ ‘Biased’
Acosta arrived at this White House press briefing armed with the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, as if it were the Constitution, to denounce the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Thinking he had the administration trapped, senior adviser Stephen Miller scorched Acosta for having “reveal[ed] your cosmopolitan bias to a shocking degree.”
5. January 17, 2018 — Acosta Claims It Will Take ‘Dead Journalists on the Highway’ to Shake Off Trump ‘Spell’
Acosta found himself back at the Newseum for another event to paint himself as Captain America, warning that rhetoric attacking the media would lead to “a dead journalist on the side of the highway” and President Trump would be to blame.
Only then, he added, could the “consciousness” of Americans be sufficiently “shake[n]...to sort of snap them out of this” because so many “are under a spell where they think it’s okay to go after us like this, and they’re going to have to get it shocked out of their system.”
6. August 1, 2018 — Acosta: ‘We Weren’t In America Anymore’ With Trump Supporters
Back when S.E. Cupp wasn’t a glorified Democrat and Zuckerbot, she had an HLN show that didn’t treat conservatives, Republicans, libertarians, and any non-lefty as enemies.
But during this particular episode, Acosta showed a visceral hatred when he insisted that, whenever he was around Trump supporters at a rally, “we weren’t in America anymore.”
7. January 10, 2019 — Oopsie! CNN's Jim Acosta Inadvertently Makes Strong Case for a Border Wall
In one of the greatest self-owns of all time, Acosta reported from the U.S./Mexico border alongside a portion of the President’s border wall and claimed that, because he didn’t see any unrest or anyone trying to cross the border, walls don’t work.
Yes, Jim. Since there’s nothing going on either side of steel slats, we shouldn’t have fortified borders.
8. March 19, 2019 — MELTDOWN! Acosta: Trump Is Spreading ‘Virus’ Against the Media, Right Has Bigger Media Presence
Following a Rose Garden press conference, Acosta rushed to Baldwin so he could kvetch and moan about how difficult his life was and that someone (let alone the President) would dare criticize the news business.
“[T]his is something that we've seen since President Trump came into office, called this network fake news, has referring to the press as the enemy of the people and so on is that this is a virus that is spreading around the world,” he bemoaned. During this same meltdown, Acosta falsely claimed that the right has a bigger media presence than the left. Really.
9. June 11, 2019 — Acosta Releases a Narcissistic Book of Hogwash, Complains About Losing John Roberts as a Friend
What an oppressed man Acosta has been. His life was so terrible and one of imprisonment that he was allowed to release a 354-page book entitled The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America.
From claiming his “sacrifice” for America would be worth it to likening Spicer to a Chinese government spokesman to saying showboating was what a healthy America looks like to whining that another reporter disliked his shtick, Acosta reminded everyone that, when it comes to Jim, there’s only one person who matters: himself.
10. March 11, 2020 — Acosta Declares Trump’s Coronavirus Address Was ‘Smacking of Xenophobia’
Acosta was livid after President Trump announced he would be suspending travel to Europe (after he had done so weeks earlier with China) due to the coronavirus pandemic, telling Fredo Cuomo that these decisions and calling the coronavirus a “foreign virus” originating from China would “come across to a lot of Americans as smacking of xenophobia.”
11. April 10, 2020 — ‘This Is the Real Deal’; Watch Trump Torpedo Jim Acosta for Trashing ‘Happy Talk Briefings’
Coronavirus Task Force briefings served as yet another chance for liberal reporters to bolster their cartoonish image as American heroes and Acosta made sure to play a starring role.
On Good Friday, Acosta trashed Trump for daring to speak in positive tones and express hope for America’s future.
In part, Trump replied: “This is not happy talk. Maybe it's happy talk to you, not happy talk to me, talking about death....There’s nothing happy about it, Jim. This is sad talk. This is saddest — these are the saddest — these are the saddest news conferences that I've ever had....This is the real deal and I've got to make the biggest decision of my life.”
12. April 18, 2020 — Acosta, Blitzer TRASH Americans Weary of Lockdowns, Cover for Lefties on PPP
There was perhaps no news outlet more committed to indefinite lockdowns and showing little to no concern for the economic and psychological fallout than CNN. Following this particular day’s briefing, Acosta partnered with Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer to trash anyone and everyone who protested the lockdowns.
13. June 17, 2020 — McEnany Tells Off Jim Acosta, Lefty Journalists on Social Distancing Double Standard
Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany routinely schooled the liberal White House press corps, showing that no one was going to step on her and, with a massive binder of research and talking points, deftly took on an army of loons.
June 17 marked perhaps her strongest (and most hysterical) takedown as she told Acosta “work on your internal cohesion” after Acosta griped about Trump rallying supporters amid the pandemic.
14. June 19, 2020 — Kayleigh McEnany Owns Jim Acosta (Again), Cites ‘Extraordinary’ NewsBusters Video
Two days after Acosta was owned by McEnany for lacking “internal cohesion,” Acosta returned for more and centered his tantrum around President Trump tweeting a Carpe Donktum video that was a parody of two children (one white, one African-American) hugging.
Acosta blasted McEnany for Trump sharing the video as it replaced with the children running away from each other accompanied by a CNN chyron that read “Terrified toddler runs away from racist baby.”
McEnany was ready, firing back by calling out CNN’s years of disinformation, including how they had to settle with Kentucky teen Nicholas Sandmann.
15. January 8, 2021 — CNN Parties Over Twitter’s ‘Amazing’ Choice to Ban Trump: He’s ‘Been Kneecapped!’
Acosta’s final entry came 12 days ago when Twitter permanently banned the President and, despite the fact that snarky takes on his tweets would no longer provide hits of dopamine, he joined fellow lefties in celebrating the news.
Speaking to Blitzer, Acosta bragged: “So, the President has been kneecapped by Twitter. He can no longer use this account to do all of the various and sundry things that he does on a regular basis. He is, for all intents and purposes, banned at the moment from this very powerful social media platform.”
