Jim Acosta pounces and seizes on Trump comment that Democrats are “anti-Israel,” “anti-Jewish” party
Argues with Sarah Sanders during press briefing.
CNN‘s Jim Acosta is nothing if not predictable.
In the middle of the Democratic party infighting caused by the anti-Semitic rhetoric we’ve heard from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in recent weeks, Acosta saw fit not to question the comments themselves, but instead President Trump’s grim assessment of the Democratic party’s relationship with the Jewish community.
First, here’s what Trump said last Friday:
President Trump: "The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party, they've become an anti-Jewish party and that's too bad." https://t.co/cdbpkgw74z pic.twitter.com/RV7H5n9OCR
— The Hill (@thehill) March 9, 2019
Also, according to Axios, Trump reportedly told a group of donors at private fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago Friday that “Democrats hate Jewish people.”
Fox News reported on the tense exchange that occurred Monday between Acosta and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders over Trump’s remarks:
“Do you think that the president has thought, at all, going into the 2020 campaign that the rhetoric just needs to be lowered? Whether it’s talking about Democrats, the media, immigrants, or should we just plan on hearing the president use the same kind of language that we heard in 2016 and all through the first couple years of this administration?” Acosta asked.
Sanders responded that it’s a shame Democrats won’t come together and condemn anti-Semitic remarks.
“I think that is a great shame,” Sanders said. “The president has been clear on what his position is, certainly what his support is for the people and the community of Israel.”
Acosta then asked if it “drags down the rhetoric of a debate” when someone says something that is “patently untrue.” Sanders tried to answer, and the CNN correspondent continued to talk over her.
“Democrats don’t hate Jewish people, that’s just silly,” Acosta said. “It’s not true.”
Sanders told Acosta that Democrats should call out their members by name if they don’t want to be aligned with anti-Semitic rhetoric. Acosta tried to respond, but Sanders cut him off.
Watch video of their back and forth below:
CNN's @Acosta goes to bat for Democrats, says it's "patently untrue" members of the party are anti-Semitic.
"Democrats don't hate Jewish people. That's silly. Not true." pic.twitter.com/B3pmxIDBHe
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 11, 2019
But he wasn’t done.
Later that day in a segment with CNN’s Brooke Baldwin, Acosta said Trump was “largely responsible for this driving down of our political discourse.” He continued:
We are in for probably, it’s astonishing I think to say this and to hear it and so on, but we’re in for the nastiest campaign we’ve ever seen in our lifetimes coming up in 2020 and I wanted to ask, you know, whether or not the President plans on tamping down the rhetoric because, as we all know, you know, he is — he is largely responsible for this driving down of our political discourse. You know, going out and making speeches saying Democrats are hating Jewish people. I mean, that just goes to pushing people’s buttons in ways that you know the President of the United States really shouldn’t be engaged in doing.
I’m not really sure what to be most upset with here:
1) The fact Acosta is using his credentials as a straight-news White House correspondent to spout off political opinions during press briefings (and elsewhere).
2) That he’s deliberately ignoring the Democratic party’s bitter divisions on the issue of anti-Semitism, and worse yet how the anti-Semitic wing seems to be winning out.
3. His complete cluelessness on how bad the breakdown in our political discourse has become over the last several decades. Trump’s election happened, in part, because Republicans felt party leaders had been too nice to both Democrats and their mainstream media allies (like Acosta) who have treated them with such outright contempt in the past.
If Acosta wants to pretend anti-Semitism hasn’t taken firm root in the Democratic party, then maybe he should talk to the Jewish Democratic members of Congress who have openly expressed serious concerns over why their party refused to call out Rep. Omar by name, but eagerly did so with Rep. Steve King (R-IA).
Maybe he should wonder why Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), a defender of Omar’s (and Michigan’s Rep. Tlaib for that matter), formed a political alliance with anti-Semitic British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn earlier this year.
Maybe he should read up on the history of anti-Semitic tropes like the ones used by Omar and Tlaib and why they have no place whatsoever in a civilized society, much less be uttered by members of Congress.
If Acosta wants to continue to rattle off his ill-informed left wing opinions, then CNN needs to give him his own evening show a la Anderson Cooper and be done with it. That’s where his opinion journalism belongs anyway.
Enough is enough.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter.–
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Comments
“If Acosta wants to continue to rattle off his ill-informed left wing opinions, then CNN needs to give him his own evening show…”
My thoughts exactly when I watched the WH briefing yesterday. My words were “Here we go again with the Jim Costa show”.
Costa, later during his show, spouted, again, that Trump said the white supremist in Charlottesville were decent people. Trump never said any such thing but, Costa doesn’t care. After all, he works for a fake news network.
Who’s “Costa”?
A good friend of mine. Of course I meant Acosta.
“Acosta then asked if it “drags down the rhetoric of a debate” when someone says something that is “patently untrue.””
(Nervous laughter) This guy has just… no sense of irony. At all.
A good answer to that might be, “I don’t know, Jim, why don’t you ask your 10 airport viewers and get back to us?”
Acosta is angling for exactly what you suggest, his own evening show, doubtless at a huge increase in pay.
He’s busy making himself the story, and CNN obviously supports this, nevermind the outright lying. DJT is more gently spoken than many Democrats, he just calls them on their ugly words and actions, with painful clarity.
Watch this clip of Democrat Delegates booking God and Jerusalem. Then, tell me that Dems are not anti-Jew.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX11IUjkEKs
When I am out with my Jewish friends, they are all in for what they think is the liberal, progressive Democrats. I have not directly confronted them about the anti-Semitism that is so apparent, but they are extremely intelligent and can see the situation themselves. This makes no sense to me and reminds me of the Nazis in the 30’s. My Jewish friends are very concerned about future prosecution based on their faith, to the extent that they make plans for those of us that would help them in a crisis. They clearly know that I am a staunch conservative, but consider me as one of the people that would actually protect them, all the while voting and supporting the elements that would do them harm.
They are Leftists first, Jewish a distant second. Hence their silence at antisemitism while the vote for the very people who want them dead.
I don’t know why anyone at the White House calls on Acosta at all. He’s present courtesy of a Federal Judge, that Judge can’t require Sanders, or anyone else, to allow him to a̶s̶k̶ ̶a̶ ̶q̶u̶e̶s̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ state his opinion.
The judge can’t even require him to be allowed there in the first place, if the president would just openly say he doesn’t want him there, or if the White House would scrap the procedure for passes and just make them all discretionary. The order to restore his pass was based entirely on the bass-ackward way it was handled to keep the blame off the president.
I get the idea that Trump could do a considerable amount to silence people like Acosta, but he likely realizes that the picture would reflect badly on him and that he actually gains more by having jerks like Acosta in front of the camera.
Acosta seems the be a good example of “keep your mouth shut and let people think you are an idiot, or open your mouth and remove all doubt.” IMHO!
This isn’t really a “pounce”.
One “pounces” on an opponent’s error. Notices and takes advantage of an unexpected opportunity. Exploits a weak spot.
The President didn’t make an error. Therefore there’s nothing on which to pounce. DJT just pointed out an obvious fact—that the wannabe Emperors have no clothes, and even their fashion accessories are selected from the notorious “Anti Semite” line.
Acosta’s no “pouncer”, he’s just a putz; a show-biz suckup angling to be the new Dan Rather, even though we all know how that whole Dan Rather thing worked out.
I hope Sanders is at least getting combat pay.
Let’s pretend for a moment that Acosta is right, that “Democrats don’t hate Jewish people, that’s just silly,..not true.”
But given the handling of Rep. Ilhan Omar and her apparent anti-Semitic opinions, I would then wonder: if the Democrats did hate Jewish people, what would they have done differently?
Leftists are looking for funding and democratic leverage. Jews have money, but not the numbers. The American left has a legacy of diversity and takes affirmative action to judge and divide people by “color” (e.g. race, sex, gender).
I still do not know how or why jim the accoster is allowed to be there !
He’s there because Trump inexplicably backed off and forgot about it. The judge explained carefully why he issued the TRO, which means he explained what the WH would have to do to get around it. So long as there is a formal credentialing system in place, if someone has been granted credentials they can’t be canceled on a whim. If there is no such system then credentials which are issued on a whim can be pulled on a whim. All Trump had to do was put the system on that footing, but he seems to have decided not to bother.
That and Trump just had Sanders not give briefings like this for a while and took the bullets himself, culminating in Acosta’s “Sad Podium” photo post.
My problem with the Acosta situation is that he appears to represent, on the part of Trump, the president’s own kind of virtue signaling.
The Trump people made a big hue and cry about taking Acosta’s credentials, yet there he is, bloviating. And Sanders lets him ask a question.
This is a pattern with Trump. Big noise about a wall and stopping illegal immigration. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it true that catch and release is reaching higher than ever numbers under Trump?
Trump likes to talk. I sometimes think that’s all he does, our showman, P.T. Barnum president.
Trump isn’t stupid, but he has a disorganized mind. He does something, or tries to do something, for instance, his idea that colleges themselves should be on the hook for loans students get to be able to attend their “august” institutions, a long overdue move, or that colleges will be denied federal funds if they stifle speech.
If DJT goes through with these moves, via executive order, or whatever, the 9th Circuit will stop him. The rest is silence. That’s where it will end.
What’s the point? To let your base know your heart’s in the right place?
It’s ca!led the “bully pulpit” and all presidents use that “bluster” since there is this separation of power thingy.
Blaming Trump for inaction and at the same time noting the Courts penchant to rule the country only points out that often the only tool for presidents is speaking out.
Don’t worry though…once Trump is gone the country will get on track to be one party rule with central planning and unopposed dictatorial rule…it will do much better…actions rather than words.
Which is why, despite everything, warts and all, I want him to win in 2020 in a landslide. I do understand the situation Trump faces, within and outside his own party.
I said it before & I’ll say it again: he’s all alone.
While the chains may lay lightly on the shoulders of the Left’s fellow travelers and the GOPe elite for now, all will be dragged down when the bottom eventually falls out. The powerful and well to do still party hardy in Venezuela in the eye of the hurricane and those here do not see the storm warnings.
Mark Steyn wrote books called “America Alone” and “After America”… same titles with Trump alone and after Trump will have the same trajectory.
which is why they want to disarm us now…
they kow damn well what is coming, and want to make sure we are as helpless as the general public in Venezuela is.
#MolonLabe
Some thinkers have suggested that the future course of the US is to break up the country in a manner that was happening in the 1860’s. Being in the South, I think that would be great as we feel as if we are living in an occupied country. But I wonder if we are close to the tipping point. Certainly the dynamics of the rhetoric are very similar to the 1850’s (in place of slavery, which I don’t think was as much of a factor as claimed by present historians, they have inserted racism, which to my observation is greater in the North and among minorities).
This is not true for every naysayer and critic, but for Jim Acosta, it’s fairly consistent: it’s not Trump that Acosta is hurting by being there. Trump benefits from this. We can argue while clutching pearls that the nation does not, but Trump, individually and politically, absolutely benefits from this clown show.
I could do without. I enjoy intelligent arguments and battles of facts and policies. But that is not the battlefield as we know it today.
Covington Catholic students will sure have fun when they own CNN and Jim Acosta.
I believe it was Reagan who said a president only gets to accomplish a few things.
Trump keeps the press in a continuous uproar over things that are unlikely to change. Meanwhile, he is getting judges approved.
Maybe he should read up on the history of anti-Semitic tropes like the ones used by Omar and Tlaib and why they have no place whatsoever in a civilized society, much less be uttered by members of Congress.
^^^ THIS ^^^
If such “rhetoric” and “driving down the political discourse” is “beneath the President of the United States”, then how is it not “beneath” a U.S. House Rep or Senator?
Why does one need to be toned down, but the other needs to be defended? And why does Jim Acosta see fit to call out only one side?
(Besides which: “patently untrue”? It may be, but there’s a discernible, repeatable pattern to Rep. Omar’s, Rep. Tlaib’s, and Rep. AOC’s comments, and other Democrats’ and the MSM’s [but I repeat myself] defense of the same. It may be untrue or it may not be, but as the saying goes, “If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck….”)
Remember all those times Jim Acosta displayed his opposition and bias against Barack Obama’s press secretary and said political rhetoric is “beneath the President of the United States” and needed to be toned down?
Yeah, me neither.
Ah, Leftists. If it weren’t for double standards, they’d have no standards at all.
Hey, get with the program. “Pounce” is what Republicans do when they catch a Democrat error (which ain’t no big thing–the errors come every day). My local fishwrapper, aka The Lost Angeles Times, (misspelling intentional) reserves “pounce” exclusively for Republicans. A Democrat can’t pounce—and whatever Jim Acosta is, he’s no Republican.
Dude: get with the program…
it’s “Lost Angels, #Failifornia”
Acosta seems to be drawing a distinction between what a sitting president says and what anyone else in his party says. For instance I don’t recall a sitting Dem president saying “Repblicans hate black people”, though plenty of other very prominent Dems have said it in public for decades without upsetting Acosta.
But I don’t buy the distinction. The accusation is no more stinging when made by the president than when made by a member of the party’s congressional leadership, a governor, the NAACP, etc.
In this case it has the virtue of being true, or close enough to the truth. The Dem party as a whole may not hate Jews but it certainly seems to no longer have a problem with those in its ranks who do.
“For instance I don’t recall a sitting Dem president saying “Repblicans hate black people”
I’d be willing to bet cash money that Obama insinuated that on a minimum of five occasions during his tenure, although not in exactly those words. (but I’m too lazy to look through The One’s huge collection of self-important quotes for the various back-handed ‘some say’ or ‘let us not say’ ways that he liked to slip those in.)
Why would anyone be surprised about anything Acosta says? That’s why he says stupid things, just like AOC, because we are now talking about him/her. Trump uses this technique every day and Acosta and AOC have figured it out but the msm hasn’t.
Stormey Daniels, Jim Acosta. Same kind of garbage.
Why do they still call on this as$ whole?