CNN's Jim Acosta explains to Stephen Colbert why Trump fans hate the press
Everybody's a critic, but the people who attend President Trump's rallies are specifically media critics, CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta told Stephen Colbert on Wednesday's Late Show. Acosta famously sparred with White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders last week over whether the press is an "enemy of the people," but he's long been a celebrity of sorts at Trump's rallies — attendees, up to and including the president, frequently single him out for abuse. Acosta told Colbert that when he can, he goes down and talks to his Trump-loving detractors.
"A lot of these folks, they're well-intentioned, they care about their country — I totally understand that — they really like this president, but they'll ask me, 'Well, why don't you report the good things that he does?'" Acosta said. After he runs through some positive Trump news CNN recently reported, "they sort of calmed down," he said, "but my sense of it, Stephen, is that a lot of these folks, they get their impressions of what we do by watching other conservative outlets, they look at other conservative websites. And these folks are focused on the coverage of the president's behavior more so than they are the president's behavior. And to me, you know, I think that the president's behavior is more newsworthy than our coverage. But a lot of these folks our there, they're getting their sense of what we do twisted and warped by some people out there who just want to do the president's bidding." Acosta wisely did not name any names, but you can try to figure out which Fox News hosts he's likely alluding to in the video below. Peter Weber
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
