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Tag: jim acosta
White House Ignored Distancing Guidelines At Briefing Because 'It Looked Better'

White House Ignored Distancing Guidelines At Briefing Because 'It Looked Better'

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

President Donald Trump held a press briefing in the White House Rose Garden on Friday — and according to an official statement from the White House Correspondents Association, the event was inconsistent with the administration's own social distancing guidelines.

WHCA President Jonathan Karl explained: "Today, the White House press office positioned seating for the president's Rose Garden' 'news conference' in a way that violated the federal government's guidelines on social distancing and needlessly put reporters' health at risk."


According to Karl, the Trump White House was more concerned about visuals than the journalists' wellbeing.

"The chairs were initially positioned in a way that was consistent with social distancing guidelines but were moved closer together by White House staff shortly before the event started. When we asked for an explanation, the White House press office told us the decision to move the chairs close together was made because 'it looks better.'"Karl ended the statement on an angry note, asserting, "The health of the press corps should not be put in jeopardy because the White House wants reporters to be a prop for a 'news conference' where the president refused to answer any questions."


#EndorseThis: Kimmel Laughs At Trump’s Infantile Attack On Acosta

#EndorseThis: Kimmel Laughs At Trump’s Infantile Attack On Acosta

As Jimmy Kimmel demonstrates amusingly, the president’s ill temper yesterday belied his claim that the midterm results represented a “total victory” for him and his party.

Not only did Trump trash the Republicans who kept their distance from him, but he often verged on losing it altogether during his weird press confrontation (not “conference”).

The verbal scuffling between Trump and CNN correspondent Jim Acosta — since barred from the White House by Sarah Huckabee Sanders — is a highlight. The videotape shows clearly that Acosta did nothing except ask questions, even as a young woman on the White House press staff aggressively attempted to seize the mic. But today Sanders tweeted out a doctored video of that moment from the Infowars lunatics, then falsely claimed that Acosta “put his hands” on the young woman.

Acosta rightly denounced Sanders’ tweet as a lie — but what she did is worse than the quotidian mendacity that emanates from the press podium and the presidential pie-hole. This is a brazen attempt to manipulate the news more typical of a totalitarian regime. As a CNN executive warned Sanders: “History will not be kind to you.”

Meanwhile Jimmy will make you laugh, so just click.

#EndorseThis: Jim Acosta Reveals Secret Of His Incendiary Trump Coverage

#EndorseThis: Jim Acosta Reveals Secret Of His Incendiary Trump Coverage

Hypocrisy is an over-used charge in politics. But sometimes, the shoe fits. In his Late Night With Stephen Colbert interview, CNN reporter Jim Acosta subtly levies that accusation at the American right wing.

Pro-Trump conservatives accuse CNN and other news outlets of selective truth-telling, of having made up their minds about the Trump presidency before knowing if it will succeed or fail. But Acosta explains that his “Acosta-ing” of Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House is not motivated by liberal bias or partisan agenda.

Instead, the Washington D.C. correspondent believes that President Donald Trump’s entire political career is based on a lie. Therefore, it would be dishonest for Acosta to cover the current administration in a less-aggressive way.

Simple when you spell it out, right? There are those in the GOP who would prefer not to.

Did Sanders Lie To Media About Stormy Payment? Or Did Trump Lie To Her?

Did Sanders Lie To Media About Stormy Payment? Or Did Trump Lie To Her?

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Sarah Sanders on Thursday wouldn’t say whether she was kept in the dark about President Donald Trump’s hush money payment to former adult film star Stephanie Clifford, who is better known as Stormy Daniels.

CNN reporter Jim Acosta probed the press secretary on the matter at the afternoon’s press briefing. The night before, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani had undermined month’s of the White House’s denials that the president had any part in or knowledge of the payment to Clifford, which was meant to ensure her silence about an alleged affair with Trump. Giuliani said that the president had reimbursed his attorney Michael Cohen for making the payment.

On March 7, Sanders said of the payment to Clifford, “There was no knowledge of any payment from the president, and he’s denied all these allegations.”

“Were you lying to us at the time, or were you in the dark?” Acosta asked Thursday.

Sanders tried to avoid the question and said, “I gave you the best information that I had, and the allegations … the president has denied and continues to deny the underlying claim.” She didn’t acknowledge, however, that her original statement also seemed to include denying that the hush money payment ever took place, which we now know is clearly false.

Acosta tried to press for a more direct answer, but Sanders moved on to other questions.

It’s now clear that Trump did know about the payments, even when Sanders said he didn’t. Her own statements mean that either she was misled by the president, or that she lied on behalf of the president to the American people.

Watch Acosta question Sanders in the clip below: