Search icon

News

08th Nov 2018

White House bans CNN reporter labelled “a terrible person” by Donald Trump after tense confrontation

Paul Moore

Trump CNN

“This is a lie.”

CNN’s chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta has been banned from the White House after a tense interaction with US president Donald Trump at a press conference on Wednesday.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced that the reporter’s hard pass – the permanent credentials that allows members of the press access to the White House – had been suspended.

The two men engaged in verbal sparring on Wednesday after Mr Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern US border.

When Mr Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, “That’s enough!” and a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta.

Following the incident, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders released the following statement: “President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration. We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern.”

The statement adds: “This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history. Contrary to CNN’s assertions there is no greater demonstration of the President’s support for a free press than the event he held today.

“Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters. Over the course of 1.5 hours, including several from the reporter in question. The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it‘s an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this Administration. As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice,” Sanders concludes.

Sanders released the following video – an edited montage of the exchange – while CNN released the whole footage. Acosta has also responded to Sanders’s statement.

Here’s CNN’s response, including the whole heated exchange as it unfolded.

Acosta has accused Sarah Sanders of telling lies.

LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Conor Sketches | Tiger Woods loves Ger Loughnane and cosplaying as Charles LeClerc