Trump to CNN’s Jim Acosta during post-midterm presser: ‘You are the enemy of the people’

In the wake of the midterm elections, President Trump held a somewhat combative press conference at the White House this Wednesday morning. During one exchange with CNN reporter Jim Acosta, Trump returned to his rhetoric that demonizes the press, calling CNN “fake news” and referring to the network as the “enemy of the people.”

Trump called on Acosta, who stood up and said that wanted to challenge him over a statement he made towards the end of campaigning for the midterms where he called the migrant caravan an “invasion.”

“Here we go,” Tump said, anticipating Acosta’s usual adversarial questions. “I consider it to be an invasion.”

Acosta begged to differ.

“As you know, Mr. President, the caravan is not an invasion. It’s a group of migrants moving up from Central America towards the border with the U.S. …”

“Thank you for telling me that, I appreciate it,” Trump interjected sarcastically.

“Why did you characterize it as such?” Acosta asked.

“Because I consider it an invasion,” Trump shot back. “You and I have a difference of opinion.”

“But do you think you demonized immigrants during this election?” Acosta pressed.

“Not at all,” Trump replied. “I want them to come into the country, but they have to come in legally — you know, they have to come in, Jim, through a process — and I want to people to come in and we need the people. … You know why we need the people? Because we have hundreds of companies moving in. We need the people.”

Acosta then mentioned a GOP campaign ad showing “migrants climbing over walls.”

“Well that’s true,” Trump acknowledged. “They weren’t actors … Do you think they were actors? They weren’t actors. They didn’t come from Hollywood.”

“They’re hundreds of miles away though,”Acosta countered, referring to the caravan. “That’s not an invasion.”

“Honestly, I think you should let me run the country — you run CNN, and if you did it well, your ratings would be much better,” Trump said before attempting to shut Acosta down. “That’s enough!”

As Trump tried to move on to another question, Acosta continued to press him. At one point, a White House aide came over and tried to wrestle the microphone away from the CNN reporter. Acosta tried to get in a question about the Russia investigation, and Trump’s anger became more and more apparent.

“I’m not concerned about anything with the Russia investigation because it’s a hoax,” Trump thundered. “That’s enough, put down the mic.”

As the aide finally took the mic away from Acosta, Trump paced around the podium impatiently before returning to the mic and launching into a diatribe against Acosta and CNN.

“I’ll tell you what — CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them,” he said, pointing directly at Acosta. “You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN.”

Acosta stood up again, this time without the aid of a mic, and Trump continued to shut him down.

“When you report fake news, which CNN does a lot, you are the enemy of the people.”

Watch the full exchange below:

Featured image via screen grab

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.