President Trump spars with CNN's Jim Acosta: You have an agenda, you're fake news
Trump accuses CNN reporter Jim Acosta of asking a 'very political question' at Rose Garden news conference.
CNN's star liberal reporter Jim Acosta said in an interview that journalists aren't supposed to be "referees" after being grilled for sounding like a "columnist" in his book.
Appearing recently on the Canadian program "The Agenda with Steve Paikin," Acosta began the interview by claiming he asked former President Barack Obama "tough questions" when he was in office and complimented the 44th president's "healthy respect" for the White House Press Corps and quickly blasted President Trump for his "out of control" "schtick" attacking the media as "fake news" and "the enemy of the people."
"I think that is what has been picked up on here in the United States and around the world that this is a very difficult and a somewhat dangerous time for the press and covering this administration because this is really nothing like we've ever seen before," Acosta said.
CNN's chief White House correspondent defended the media's overwhelming coverage of then-candidate Trump during the 2016 election who critics say helped him win the presidency since he was the "GOP frontrunner."
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Host Steve Paikin then pulled an excerpt from Acosta's "Enemy of the People" where he wrote the following:
"[Most] Republicans outside the administration, nearly united in their cowardice, stood firm in their refusal to confront the president. This sad chapter only reinforced that the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln, had become Trump's latest real estate acquisition."
"Those words sound like ones of a columnist as opposed to a reporter," Paikin told Acosta.
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The anti-Trump reporter defended himself, saying journalists "aren't referees in a football game" and that they don't just "report the news but defend the truth."
He later slammed Republicans for "sitting on the sidelines" and not condemning President Trump, saying that should be "called out."
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