by Daveda Gruber:
Were Jim Acosta’s feelings hurt? On Thursday President Trump didn’t call on the CNN reporter in a news conference after the abrupt end to the Hanoi summit between the U.S. and North Korea.
After the news conference Acosta claimed that Trump may have avoided White House press corps journalists. Why, you ask? Well, Acosta believes or appeared to know the answer. He made an assumption that he and other White House press corps journalists were not called on in an effort to dodge questions about Michael Cohen.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, testified Wednesday on the Capitol Hill.
Acosta said, “First of all, we have to point out the obvious, which is the president steered clear largely during this news conference of the White House press corps and instead selected journalists at random from the other side of the room, where foreign journalists were seated.”
CNN’s Jim Acosta complains Trump didn’t call on U.S. press: “He was calling on reporters from Russian state media, Chinese state media, Sean Hannity from FOX”
Trump called on reporters from ABC, Bloomberg, CBS, Fox News, NPR, NYT, WashPost
Acosta is mad he did not get called on pic.twitter.com/bNm05ry3ZK
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) February 28, 2019
Acosta apparently forgot to mention that Trump called on at least two journalists from the White House press corps; just not Acosta. The first journalist to be called on by Trump was CBS’s Major Garrett. Also, ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, who questioned Trump on Cohen’s testimony. So, did Acosta Lie? You tell me.
The air travel distance is equal to 8,584 miles. The air travel shortest distance between United States and Vietnam is 13,814 km or 8,584 miles. If you travel with an airplane (which has average speed of 560 miles) from United States to Vietnam, It takes 15.33 hours to arrive. That’s a long flight from any airport in the U.S.. It bewilders me why a journalist who traveled that distance to cover a summit, would waste a question on asking about a completely different subject than the one at hand.
Trump had an answer for the Cohen question, which occurred in Washington, more than 13,000 miles from Hanoi, and said, “[Michael Cohen] lied a lot. But it was very interesting because he didn’t lie about one thing, he said, ‘no collusion with the Russian hoax.’”
Other U.S.-based outlets that also questioned Trump included the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, and Bloomberg.
Acosta must have felt really scorned because he added that Trump “was calling on reporters from Russian state media, Chinese state media and Sean Hannity from Fox.” Acosta added that it “was by design because he didn’t want to really answer questions about Michael Cohen.”
The CNN star reporter then took to Twitter and tweeted:
Russian state media got a question. China state media got a question. Hannity got a question. https://t.co/xcHcuiTkQo
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) February 28, 2019
It appears the Acosta may be jealous of Sean Hannity, who did get a question. I tweeted back to Acosta and told him what was on my mind:
Jim, you sound as if you are jealous of @seanhannity.You were in Vietnam. a rather long flight from the U.S.. Wasn’t it more important for reporters to ask about the summit?
— Daveda Gruber (@DavedaGruber) February 28, 2019
Acosta later acknowledged that Trump did answer a question on Cohen, though he did observe that Trump called the testimony yesterday a “fake hearing.”
I must reiterate that questions in Hanoi related to the summit would have been more appropriate.
