Thursday on “CNN Newsroom,” host Jim Acosta claimed President-elect Donald Trump accuses others of spreading fake news while he is “peddling fake news.”
Partial transcript as follows:
ACOSTA: I mean, Neil, I mean, this this is a problem. And, you know, you were saying a few moments ago, you can’t take them literally. Why shouldn’t you take the president of the United States literally? Isn’t that isn’t that sort of a baseline expectation that he should stick to the facts?
REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST NEIL CHATTERJEE: I think look, in this particular instance, and I didn’t see the exact language he used in the True Social post. I don’t think he was saying that this individual crossed illegally or if he was, it was based on initial reporting that was incorrect, that somebody had-
ACOSTA: We can show it up on screen again And I mean, he was talking about-
CHATTERJEE: But he has a valid point-
ACOSTA: He is blaming Biden’s open borders policy. He’s talking about that on Truth Social. ‘When I said to the criminals in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the fake news media, but it turned out to be true.’ Not in this case. What he is saying in that Truth Social post is false. That is false.
CHATTERJEE: He’s not saying that this individual crossed the border illegally, but there were 400 people on the terror watchlist that did.
ACOSTA: Of course. But when there’s an act of terrorism in this country, the incoming president should tell the truth to the American people. I mean, isn’t that what the president should do at all times?
CHATTERJEE: He’s talking about securing the border. He’s been talking for years about securing the border. And he believes and I think the data bears out that he won the election partially because a push for a secure border.
ACOSTA: I mean, I just have to say, here he goes again. He talks about everybody else being fake news and he’s the one peddling fake news.
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