Jim Acosta: ‘I Walked Out’ Of Briefing After Sanders Refused To ‘Say The Press Is Not The Enemy’

Minutes after White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to acknowledge that the free press was not the “enemy of the people” during Thursday press briefing, CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta took to Twitter to point out that he walked out of the presser because he was “totally saddened” over Sanders’ actions.

I walked out of the end of that briefing because I am totally saddened by what just happened. Sarah Sanders was repeatedly given a chance to say the press is not the enemy and she wouldn't do it. Shameful.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 2, 2018

“I walked out of the end of that briefing because I am totally saddened by what just happened,” he wrote. “Sarah Sanders was repeatedly given a chance to say the press is not the enemy and she wouldn’t do it. Shameful.”

Acosta, who confronted Sanders at the briefing and attempted to get her to refute the president’s attacks on the media as Ivanka Trump had done earlier in the day, appeared on CNN shortly after the presser and went on a bit of a rant over what we had just witnessed.

“I think what you saw happen here at the end of that briefing was the true feelings of the president, the true feelings of many of the people that work in this administration laid bare,” Acosta told anchor Brooke Baldwin. “They believe in their heart of hearts that the journalists who cover this White House, the journalists who work in this city, who were just trying a few moments ago to hold some of these officials accountable about attacks on our democracy, that the people here who work at this White House all the way up to the president evidently believe that journalists are the enemy of the people. Literally the enemy of the people.”

After Baldwin noted Ivanka Trump was the one exception, Acosta pointed out that he gave Sanders multiple opportunities to declare her belief that the press isn’t an enemy and she “flat refused.” He went on to note that Sanders has had some difficult experiences since joining the White House and has taken it personally, but she’s also taken to the podium and tosed out lies, falsehoods, and misinformation.

He ended his report/monologue on the following note:

“Honestly, Brooke, I’m tired of this. It is not right. It is not fair. It is not just — it is un-American to come out here and call the press the enemy of the people and Ivanka Trump knows that. I don’t know why her father doesn’t. And I don’t know why this press secretary doesn’t. I mean she got yelled at a restaurant in Virginia. I feel sorry about that. I feel badly for her that happened. That comedian at the Correspondent’s Dinner said some unpleasant things about her. I’m sorry about that. She ought to read things that are said about my colleagues on CNN on a regular basis. It would be nice if we all lowered the temperature a little bit but at the very least, I think we should all be able to agree on one thing, and that is the press is not the enemy of the people. Fellow Americans are not the enemy of fellow Americans. and, you know, forgive me for going on a rant. they lost sight of that here at this White House.”

“Let me say amen and also let me say what took Ivanka Trump so long to say that the press isn’t the enemy of the people,” Baldwin responded.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.