CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta warned conservative media members Monday that there is “no guarantee that you get to stay in power forever,” during an interview with Anderson Cooper.
Acosta was on Cooper’s show to discuss his new book, “Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America,” which is scheduled to be released Tuesday.
WATCH:
“You’ve been accused, as you are well aware, of making yourself part of the story — of, you know, antagonizing [the White House] to get a sound bite — to have an exchange.” (CNN’s Acosta, MSNBC Praise Trump’s D-Day Speech)
“The president of the United States, according to the Washington Post, has made approximately 10,000 false or misleading statements since he’s been president,” Acosta stated. “That has put us in the position of being fact-checkers in realtime, and that frustrates the White House, frustrates [President Donald Trump’s] team, frustrates [Trump’s] supporters. But … can you imagine if we spent the last two years never fact-checking him and letting all these statements fly?”
Cooper agreed that fact-checking the White House is a “difficult thing to do” because “there are so many things” that can be fact-checked during “any given speech” from the president.
“What I wanted to do is sort of take the big-picture view on this and say, ‘Is this the kind of country we want to hand off to the next generation, where we’re now comfortable from here on out saying that the press is the enemy of the people and to our friends in conservative media?'” Acosta answered. “Anderson, I say this — It is no guarantee that [conservative media] get to stay in power forever. And so, another administration could come in and do the very same thing to them and say, ‘Well, Donald Trump did it. Guess what? We’re going to do it to you, too.'”
Cooper concluded, “When the shoe’s on the other foot–will they like that?”
Last month, The Guardian published excerpts from Acosta’s book where he admitted to “grandstanding” and “showboating” while adding, “Neutrality for the sake of neutrality doesn’t really serve us in the age of Trump.”
US President Donald Trump (R) gets into a heated exchange with CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta (C) / MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Acosta and the Trump administration have had a tenuous relationship since Trump took office. Their relationship hit rock bottom in November following the midterm elections, when Acosta got into a heated confrontation with the Trump during a press conference.
Acosta continued to ask the president questions despite Trump having already addressed another reporter and he refused to give up the microphone when a White House intern tried taking it from him. The debacle escalated later, when the White House opted to revoke Acosta’s press credentials in response to the “incident.” (RELATED: CNN Sues The White House Over Jim Acosta’s Revoked Press Credentials)
Judge Timothy J. Kelly issued an injunction saying that Acosta was not afforded due process, after which his credentials were reinstated