How Africa
In a press conference, the American president and a CNN reporter had a violent exchange during which he prevented a trainee from taking the microphone. The White House has decided to suspend the accreditation of the journalist.
US President Donald Trump once again had a particularly heated exchange with the press during a conference at the White House on November 7th.
Criticized by CNN journalist Jim Acosta about his handling of the “caravan” of migrants from Central America, and about a Republican Party campaign clip that CNN had refused to broadcast, considering it racist , the head of state dryly replied: “Honestly, I think you should let me run the country. Take care of CNN, and if you did it right, your hearings would be much better. “
⚡🇺🇲VIDÉO – «Vous êtes une personne grossière et horrible (…) Ça suffit, posez ce micro ! (…) vous êtes l'ennemi du peuple» Donald #Trump refusant de répondre aux questions de Jim #Acosta (CNN). Une employée de la Maison-Blanche a tenté de reprendre le micro au journaliste. pic.twitter.com/SmOl8JGaRB
— Brèves de presse (@Brevesdepresse) November 7, 2018
Donald Trump then tried to continue the press conference by taking questions from other journalists, but Jim Acosta refused to leave his place. The voltage is then raised one notch. “That’s enough, put this microphone!”, The president told the reporter, when the latter rejected a trainee who came to take the microphone. “CNN should be ashamed to use you, you are very rude and you are a horrible person,” the US president told him.
The altercation between the two men continued after the intervention of another journalist. Not hesitating to interrupt him, Jim Acosta accused the US president of not respecting the freedom of the press. A new spike that made the head of state react: “When you broadcast fake news, which CNN does a lot, you are the enemy of the people.”
Suspended accreditation
In the wake of this tense exchange, the White House has announced that it has suspended Acosta’s accreditation. Assuring that the president, who took “68 questions from 35 journalists at a one-and-a-half hour conference”, was defending press freedom, the White House spokeswoman justified the decision by her attitude. of the journalist.
“We will never tolerate a journalist putting his hands on a young woman who is just trying to do her internship at the White House,” Sarah Sanders wrote in a series of posts on Twitter. “The fact that CNN is proud of the behavior of its employees is not only disgusting, it is an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this administration,” he said. she adds.
…over the course of 1.5 hours including several from the reporter in question. The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it‘s an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this Administration
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) November 8, 2018
CNN accused Sarah Sanders of “lying,” saying the incident quoted by the White House spokeswoman had “never happened.” The news channel described this “unprecedented decision” as a “threat to democracy”, supporting its journalist Jim Acosta.
Tonight the White House revoked @Acosta’s press pass. CNN’s response to @PressSec and @realDonaldTrump: pic.twitter.com/EY2iFLvP3P
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) November 8, 2018
The International Federation of Journalists, for its part, condemned Donald Trump’s decision: “We are appalled by the President’s verbal abuse of the media; and attempts to deprive the journalist of a microphone to prevent him from asking disturbing questions … That’s intolerable. “
