Fox’s Chris Wallace: We Should Stand With CNN But ‘Jim Acosta Makes It Awfully Hard’

After the White House announced it had taken away CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s hard pass while falsely accusing him of physically assaulting a female intern during his testy exchange with President Trump at Wednesday’s press conference, reporters and journalists have rallied to Acosta’s defense while blasting the Trump administration its authoritarian stance.

During a Fox News segment on the topic this afternoon, Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace said that while Fox News should stick together with CNN over its battle with the White House, Acosta makes it had to do that.

Speaking with former White House press secretary Dana Perino, Wallace — who has been highly critical of Acosta lately — wanted to know if she ever had a situation like the one with Acosta. She noted that she once revoked a hard pass to a reporter, but that was due to the reporter stealing from colleagues. Regarding Acosta, she stated that she knows that many of his colleagues “are very frustrated with him” because he “gets in the way of everyone being able to actually do their job.” Perino added that she doesn’t think “either side wants to de-escalate.”

“I think actually both of them have made a calculated decision that it serves their purposes to continue this,” Wallace responded. “The president knows that it’s a good line and a big source of support on the trail and among his base to take on reporters. Jim Acosta strikes me as a showboat who would like to get attention more than he’d like to get answers to questions.”

He then went on to point out that back in the day, CNN stood with Fox News when the Obama administration “declared war” on Fox, stating at that time that if Obama was going to freeze out Fox News they wouldn’t participate.

“We do have to stick together,” Wallace added. “But I gotta say Jim Acosta makes it awfully hard to have journalistic solidarity.”

Perino wondered aloud if CNN will eventually decide “who is this helping” when it comes to Acosta, causing Wallace to ask “what do the bosses at CNN see as their mission?”

“In this particular case, is it to cover the news or make a scene?” Wallace concluded.

Interestingly, neither Perino or Wallace brought up the seemingly doctored video White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted out to justify her decision to take away Acosta’s credentials. The video she shared, apparently coming from conspiracy peddlers InfoWars, misleadingly showed the physical contact between Acosta and a White House intern, making it appear that the CNN reporter karate chopped the staffer’s arm.

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.