When President Donald Trump delivered a brief speech Tuesday, CNN correspondent Jim Acosta said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told him not to ask Trump any questions, Acosta said. She warned him that if he did so, he would lose his White House press access, Mediaite reports.
So he responded by letter her know intimidation isn’t going to work.
Prior to this morment, @presssec issued a warning to me. She said if I asked a question of Trump at the bill signing "I can't promise you will be allowed into a pool spray again." Sorry Sarah.. we won't be intimidated. https://t.co/RZgJpXpyEg
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) December 12, 2017
The president plans to sign a military defense funding bill, and he was addressing the press about this, but controversy took flight just prior to his address after his sexist attack on Congresswoman Kristen Gillibrand on Twitter.
Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office “begging” for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2017
Trump’s tweet threw more gasoline on sexual misconduct bonfire that he has already caused, so it should come as no surprise that Acosta and dozens of his fellow journalists might have more questions.
Acosta simply wants to know what Trump is getting at.
Good morning @presssec what does the president mean when he says Senator Gillibrand "would do anything" for campaign contributions? https://t.co/McsN6FXpeU
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) December 12, 2017
And Acosta wasn’t deterred by Huckabee Sanders warning, and as Trump was preparing to make his getaway out of the Roosevelt Room, he asked this question:
“Mr. President, what did you mean when you said that Kirsten Gillibrand would do anything for a campaign contribution?”
The Washington Post reported that Trump met Acosta’s question with a glare, but didn’t answer.
So then Acosta and his colleague Wolf Blitzer talked about the White House’s stumbling efforts to avoid the issue. Acosta told Blitzer:
“In the moments before I asked the president the question in the Roosevelt Room as he was signing the National Defense Authorization bill, the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, pulled me aside — this was prior to me asking that question of the president. And she warned me that if I asked the president a question at this pool spray, as we call them, that she could not promise that I would be allowed into a pool spray again.”
https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/940631884241031169
And he used this time to reaffirm that he won’t be bullied by Trump and his lackeys.
“Wolf, this was a direct threat coming from the press secretary to me, warning me not to ask a question and, of course, I went ahead and asked the question anyway and the president did not respond. But Wolf, as you know, we don’t respond to threats, we’re not going to be intimidated.”
This isn’t the first time Acosta has had a run-in with Huckabee Sanders. At the beginning of this week, Acosta criticized the White House’s overuse of the phrase “fake news” as a way to describe mistaken news reports.
“I would just say, ‘Sarah, that journalists make honest mistakes, and that doesn’t make them ‘fake news.'”
Trump makes it very clear that he hates any news that is unflattering to him in any way. That’s his definition of fake news. Doesn’t matter if the news is true or not. If it paints him in a negative light, it’s fake news. I’m willing to bet that if any journalist makes an error, and writes something that shines favorably on Trump, he won’t be yelling fake news, even if the story is shot full of errors.
If Trump can yammer about fake news, why can’t we call him what he really is — a fake president?
You can watch Acosta and Blitzer discuss the incident in the video below.
https://youtu.be/SZcTjXcBAzc
Featured Image Via YouTube Video.
