United States President Donald Trump came close to getting sued by Cable News Network (CNN) for barring reporter Jim Acosta from speaking at a press conference.
Jim Acosta, a reporter for CNN, refused to give up his microphone at the conference after pressing the President repeatedly on how he called a migrant caravan an invasion. President Trump asked Acosta to put down the microphone multiple times, and a staff intern, Cecily Strong, attempted to remove it from him. After the incident, Acosta’s press pass was revoked.
The White House reported that “Mr. Acosta asked the President two questions — each of which the President answered — he physically refused to surrender a White House microphone to an intern.” They also accused him of being overly rough with the intern tasked with retrieving the microphone.
When Strong tried to take the microphone Jim Acosta said, “Pardon me ma’am,” and asked another question. When told to give up the microphone a second time, he gave it up willingly.
Trump talking to Jim Acosta during the press conference that he got his press pass revoked at
“CNN should be ashamed,” President Trump told Acosta. “You are a terrible rude person.” President Trump continued describe CNN as a reporter of “fake news” and “an enemy of the people.”
CNN responded by threatening to sue the White House for taking away Acosta’s press pass, claiming that President Trump didn’t actually have the power to take away a reporter’s press pass.
The White House restored Acosta’s press pass and gave all of the press pass holders a new set of rules. According to the New York Times, “The rules direct a journalist to ask a single question; permit journalists follow-up questions at the discretion of the president or other officials; require journalists to give up a microphone to other journalists; and threaten the revocation of journalists’ passes for not respecting the rules.”
The next reporter that spoke stood up for Acosta but was then told by President Trump, “Well I don’t like you very much either.”
Many were surprised that the President of the United States would treat reporters like this.
“I can’t believe that the United States would choose such a rude person to be our president,” Woodside High School freshmen Vincent Vierra said after being shown the video of the conference.
