Reporter Jim Acosta says comments he made during a recent interview on the Trump administration have been “twisted” by critics to make him look bad.
CNN’s chief White House correspondent took to Twitter on Wednesday to chide media outlets that covered his commentary for Variety’s Tuesday exclusive on the “combative world of covering the Trump White House.”
Mr. Acosta claims he wasn’t talking about Mr. Trump’s voters when he said “the problem is that people around the country don’t know [Mr. Trump’s rhetoric] it’s an act. … They don’t have all their faculties in some cases — their elevator might not hit all floors. My concern is that a journalist is going to be hurt one of these days.”
“My comments have been twisted by some outlets,” the reporter tweeted. “As you can plainly see, I’m not referring to Trump supporters. I am talking about people who threaten journalists.”
Mr. Acosta linked to the magazine’s piece, which also featured network colleague April Ryan expressing concern that Mr. Trump’s rhetorical “tentacles” would cause “anarchy” around the globe.
“I had the audacity to ask the president [an immigration] question about policy at the Easter Egg Roll. As a matter of fact, I’d done that last year and nobody took issue with that,” Mr. Acosta added. “It’s part of the environment we’re in right now where every action is going to be put through the conservative meat grinder. There is that natural tension that exists between the press and the people we were covering, but it was never like this. We were never called ’fake news.’”
Regarding my interview with Variety, my comments have been twisted by some outlets. As you can plainly see, I’m not referring to Trump supporters. I am talking about people who threaten journalists. Links to transcript and video below. https://t.co/SpEBiyVyQd pic.twitter.com/KZ7tkllEHQ
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 25, 2018
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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