Former CNN anchor and chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta said Tuesday the Associated Press should sue the Trump administration over the publication’s indefinite ban from the White House and denied access to the president.
The veteran reporter appeared on “MeidasTouch LIVE” on Tuesday and was asked by host Ben Meiselas about his perspective on the negative treatment of the press. White House press have received backlash from both Donald Trump and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, the latter of whom insisted that it was a “privilege” to cover the president. Meiselas asked directly if the tension has made a press corp boycott necessary.
“Yeah. I mean, I think we’ve reached a point now where the press needs to do a bit more, and that’s a tough nut to crack, as I found covering him the first time around,” the former CNN anchor said. “You know it’s a little like herding cats trying to get everybody in the press corp to act in a uniform fashion, but when you have the White House banning the AP from the Oval Office, banning AP from Air Force One … I mean, the AP is an institution that’s been around for over a hundred years. They’re in about a hundred countries, they’re in all 50 states.
Acosta went on to say he believed the publication “is read and viewed by some four billion people around the world” and added that “just about every news outlet in the United States relies on the Associated Press.”
Last week the AP was indefinitely banned from the Oval Office due to its refusal to follow President Trump’s order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
“It has a major impact on the information that people are receiving around this country, and I just don’t think it’s something that should just be tolerated at this point,” the veteran news reporter added. “I think that the AP should look at whether or not they should sue the administration.”
Watch the interview below:
“I think AP needs to look at other options in terms of what can be done, and I think the rest of the press corp needs to start giving some serious consideration to whether or not it’s worth sending everybody into the Oval Office, sending everybody on Air Force One, sending everybody into the briefing room,” Acosta said while discussing other avenues for the AP.
The former CNN anchor, who has a well of experience covering the Oval Office, was quick to mention that he realized a full boycott might not seem feasible. “I know some of my friends over there at the White House press corp will say, ‘Hang on a second, how are we supposed to cover this guy?’ I understand — it’s difficult if we’re not there. But I do think for a moment, let the American people out there see this image of this aspiring autocrat in the Oval Office surrounded by just his propaganda outlets and his right-wing hacks. That’s not a good look for him.”
Acosta closed out his perspective and added that Trump is addicted to remaining in the news cycle. The relationship with the White House and the media has always been quid pro quo. But the new administration has blasted mainstream media outlets and continued attempts to damage their credibility.
“I’ll tell you something else about Donald Trump — he cares about having those cameras on him more than just about anything else in the world,” Acosta added. “If the press were to take those cameras away for a day or two, I think there would be a lesson learned on his part. I think he would say, ‘OK, maybe I ought to rethink this idea of kicking the Associated Press out of there if I can’t have cameras with me.’”
You can watch the full MeidasTouch interview in the clip above.
