CNN’s Jim Acosta Confronts Breitbart Reporter: ‘Why Can’t We Just Have The Truth?’
During a Wednesday morning Newseum panel discussion on the press and President Donald Trump, CNN correspondent Jim Acosta got into a bit of a back-and-forth with Breitbart’s Charlie Spiering over conservative media’s willingness to give Trump the benefit of the doubt when he says false things. And it would appear that Acosta came out on top in this particular confrontation.
The two went at it after Acosta talked about how hard it must be for White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer to go out and defend some of the stuff Trump tosses out — such as his notorious tweets accusing former President Barack Obama of wiretapping him at Trump Tower. The CNN’er went on to note that recent reporting by his network shows that Republicans and Democrats in Congress have reviewed intelligence that shows there was no unlawful surveillance going on, despite what had been pushed to the forefront in reports on former National Security Advisor Susan Rice.
“The level of exhaustion he must be feeling having to deal with this president who is just sort of unwieldy and difficult to corral,” Acosta noted of Spicer. “It must be a draining experience.”
Since Acosta brought up Rice, Spiering jumped in, explaining that CNN is “completely hostile” to Trump and that they won’t show the same “hostility” to people like Rice. He then accused most of those at CNN of not voting for Trump and that this is part of the reason for the “difference in tone” between the mainstream media and Breitbart.
Acosta turned it back around to what Trump actually tweeted, asking Spiering if he believes that Trump really meant that “Susan Rice unmasked people” when he shot out that notorious tweetstorm.
“I think that there is an element of truth that comes from his tweets,” Spiering said.
“I am not talking about an element of the truth,” Acosta shot back. “How about just the truth? Why can’t we just have the truth?”
The correspondent also noted how former Breitbart chief — and current White House chief strategist — Steve Bannon continues to call his network and others the “opposition party,” stating that we need to get to the point where we’re not demonizing each other.
Watch the clip above, via C-SPAN.
