President Donald Trump ripped CNN’s Jim Acosta for being “very unprofessional” Friday, saying that the way he treats Sarah Sanders is a “disgrace.”
Trump held nothing back when speaking to reporters, tackling both CNN’s Jim Acosta as well as April Ryan.
“I think Jim Acosta is a very unprofessional man–he does this with everybody. He gets paid to do that. You know, he gets paid to burst in, he’s a very unprofessional guy. Whether it was me, or Ronald Reagan or anybody else, he would have done the same thing,” the president said.
“Look, I don’t think he’s a smart person, but he’s got a loud voice,” Trump said, adding that “it could be others” whose press passes he might revoke.
He continued, “When you’re in the White House, this is a very sacred place to me. This is a very special place. You have to treat the White House with respect, you have to treat the presidency with respect. If you’ve ever seen him dealing with Sarah Huckabee Sanders, it’s a disgrace.”
Trump also criticized CNN contributor April Ryan.
“He does it, for, you know, the reason–the same thing with April Ryan. I watch her get up–I mean, you talk about somebody that’s a loser. She doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. She gets publicity, and then she gets a pay raise or she gets a contract with, I think, CNN. But she’s very nasty, and she shouldn’t be. She shouldn’t be. You’ve got to treat the White House and the office of the presidency with respect.”
These comments come after a very contentious week between the White House and Jim Acosta. The CNN reporter had his press pass revoked by the White House Wednesday after he asked multiple questions during a press conference and refused to give the microphone back to a female aide who was trying to retrieve it from him.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that the White House would “never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern.”
Some have accused Sanders of tweeting a “doctored” version of the confrontation, a claim that has been called into question by others in the media.
Trump responded the the allegations Friday, saying, “It wasn’t doctored.”
“They gave a close up view. That’s not doctoring,” Trump said, also telling the press, “Nobody manipulated it, give me a break.”