CNN’s Jim Acosta is accusing Trump of faking his news conference overseas by calling on a reporter who applied for a job in his White House.
Video of Acosta on CNN:
Acosta was outraged because Trump only took two questions, and he gave one of them to US Daily Mail political editor, David Martosko, who discussed joining the Trump White House last month, possibly as press secretary.
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Martosko tossed a softball to Trump about CNN, “If I may, if I may, I have to ask you about this, since you started the whole wrestling video thing, what are your thoughts about what has happened since then? CNN went after you and has threatened to expose the identity of a person they said was responsibility for it. I think I’d like your thoughts.”
Trump did his usual routine about CNN being fake news, and thus half of the President’s press conference was dedicated to a question from a potential employee that allowed him to attack the free press.
Acosta also went off on Twitter:
Trump finally held a news conference overseas. But he took a question from a friendly reporter and then attacked CNN as "fake news."
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) July 6, 2017
Isn't it a "fake news conference" to take a question from a reporter who is essentially an ally of the White House? https://t.co/vD7DgAZXIv
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) July 6, 2017
The other question that Trump was asked came from NBC’s Hallie Jackson and it resulted in this disaster of Trump refusing to admit that Russia hacked the election:
.@HallieJackson: “You THINK it was Russia, your intelligence agencies say it WAS Russia, why won’t you say it was?†https://t.co/uUyeTu9chV
— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 6, 2017
It is bad enough that this president won’t take questions from anyone besides friendly conservative media outlets, but to go overseas and rig a press conference in front of the entire world sends a bad message to other nations.
US freedoms and democracy are under assault from Trump. If any other president were accused of holding a fake press conference, it would dominate the headlines, but sadly, a level of acceptance of diminished press freedoms may be setting in.
It is a legitimate question to ask why this president won’t take questions from or give interviews to non-conservative outlets.
What Trump did in Poland was a farce that reeks of the sort of banana republic authoritarianism that Trump wishes for the United States to become.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
