CNN has sued Donald Trump. And Chief of Staff John Kelly, Deputy Chief William Shine, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and the Secret Service.
The complaint? The White House suspended the press pass of the anti-Trump’s network chief Trump hater, Jim Acosta (shown), after he prevented an intern from taking the microphone from him during a press conference.
The evil White House, the lawsuit claims, trespassed CNN’s and Acosta’s First and Fifth Amendment rights, and demands a jury trial to put the miscreant president in his place.
Microphone Fight
The trouble began when Acosta, as per usual, began arguing with the president. Acosta’s antics at press conferences with the president or his aides follow a pattern. Typically, he asks a preposterously loaded question he likely crafted after perusing leftist websites for talking points he can disguise as questions. Then, If he doesn’t get the answer he wants, he starts arguing the left-wing talking points.
That’s what happened last week when he squabbled with the president about his description of the migrant horde heading north through Mexico. Trump accurately called it an “invasion.”
Leftist Acosta disagreed vehemently and accused the president of “demonizing” the migrant army. Then Acosta took him to task for the brilliant midterm campaign ad that featured an illegal-alien murderer and images of the migrant horde storming north.
Trump repeatedly told the leftist agitator “enough,” but Acosta continued the verbal feud. An intern approached him to take away his microphone, but Acosta refused to yield and prevented the young woman from taking the mic.
And that, as Sanders tweeted, was the last straw: “We will … never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman.” The White House lifted Acosta’s press pass.
Acosta accused Sanders of lying, and the media backed him up, as did the Washington Post in its rendition of the lawsuit. The Post story sought multiple sources to claim the White House banned Acosta because of his views.
We aren’t supposed to know what Acosta’s “views” are, given his position, but that isn’t why the White House banned him. Acosta knows that, and so do his enablers, sycophants, and sympathizers.
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The Lawsuit
The lawsuit contains a litany of complaints against the president, not least his remarks about CNN.
Of course, Trump is the first president who has had the nerve to attack the leftist media with the same vigor with which it attacks him, one of the main sources of the media’s Trump Derangement Syndrome. And much of that TDS, The New American has reported, Acosta himself has promoted.
The lawsuit, which says Trump admitted that Acosta’s actions were not “overly … horrible,” details its version of events and accuses Sanders of publicizing an “apparently doctored” video of Acosta’s ugly behavior.
“Defendants’ decision to revoke Acosta’s press credentials violates the First Amendment,” the lawsuit avers, because “Plaintiffs’ access to the White House, their coverage of the November 7, 2018 press conference, and Acosta’s questions to President Trump during that conference are and were all protected activities under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
Actually, the First Amendment does not protect fighting with interns, but in any event “defendants have deprived Plaintiffs of their right to access the White House Grounds.”
The White House also trespassed CNN’s and Acosta’s Fifth Amendment right to due process, the lawsuit avers, because “Plaintiffs have protected liberty and property interests” in Acosta’s credentials and access to the White House. “Absent his credentials, he cannot serve as a White House correspondent.”
As well, “defendants did not provide Plaintiffs a written explanation, nor any explanation at all, before revoking Acosta’s press credentials,” which isn’t strictly true given Sanders’s tweet.
The lawsuit also claims the suspension violated federal law and that the White House “had no legal or rational justification to revoke Acosta’s credentials.” Fighting with the intern and Acosta’s intemperate, discourteous attitude, the lawsuit says, “is not sufficient as a matter of law.”
The lawsuit also demands a jury trial.
He Deserved It
Acosta might well have had it coming. He is openly hostile to the president not only in press conferences but also on the air when reporting. In recounting his shenangians last week on Anderson Cooper’s program, for instance, he flatly called the midterm anti-caravan ad “racist.”
Acosta has also led the campaign against the president for pushing back against the media.
Photo: AP Images
