NEXT!
Posted on 11/08/2018 11:54:56 AM PST by yesthatjallen
Rep. Gerry Connelly (D-Va.) declared Thursday that CNN's Jim Acosta was "deliberately set up" by President Trump in a "staged" event involving an intern on Wednesday that led to the CNN correspondent getting his press pass suspended by the White House.
Connelly's comments were made to TMZ outside of Congress on Thursday.
"Do you think he’s going to have a better relationship with all these reporters?" Connelly was asked.
"I would not argue that he’s going to have a better relationship with the reporters, given the fact he pulled Jim Acosta’s White House press credentials yesterday in kind of a staged setup," Connelly replied. "It was kind of a disgusting scene. So I think it raises very worrying questions about any respect at all he has for the free press and the role of the free press in a democratic society."
"When you say staged, do you think he came in to distract?" TMZ followed.
"I believe they had an intern deliberately set up Jim Acosta. Yeah, I think that was pretty clear," Connelly argued.
In a statement Wednesday night, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed Acosta "[placed] his hands on" a young female White House intern who attempted to take a microphone from him earlier in the day.
“We will ... never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable," said Sanders. "As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice."
Acosta took to Twitter to call Sanders's assertion that he put his hands on the intern, "a lie."
These people are truly unhinged.
Acosta was a total jerk and a creep ... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it’s Trump’s Fault!
Stop hitting yourself
Stop hitting yourself
How can anyone watch the video of rude-boy Acosta and not think he was out-of-line, showing no respect to the Office, personally insulting and aggressive, and hogging the microphone for argumentation? How?
The press briefings are supposed to give insight about policy, not an opportunity to badger and taunt the President because of political advocacy.
What planet do these people come from?
Would they be happier if Trump said that these conferences aren’t serving their intended purpose, and decided to hold them less frequently... say at the same frequency the hardly-ever-to-be-seen Obama held them?
It should be a privilege to be at these conferences, and one that is treated with respect.
How can anyone watch the video of rude-boy Acosta and not think he was out-of-line, showing no respect to the Office, personally insulting and aggressive, and hogging the microphone for argumentation? How?
The press briefings are supposed to give insight about policy, not an opportunity to badger and taunt the President because of political advocacy.
What planet do these people come from?
Would they be happier if Trump said that these conferences aren’t serving their intended purpose, and decided to hold them less frequently... say at the same frequency the hardly-ever-to-be-seen Obama held them?
It should be a privilege to be at these conferences, and one that is treated with respect.
Trump provided the rope, CNN provided the dope.
Suspended until further notice??? Okay, not wanting Republicans to look like pushover pansies, the notice is coming down in... NEVER!
Absolute truth, Trump set him up. He did so by calling on Acosta, and letting Acosta's mouth do the rest.
I do not recall a previous news conference where the reporters were given a mic and allowed to controll the timing of the discourse. In retrospect this was a big mistake. In the future, if a mic is needed it should be in the hands of a friendly and not the enemy.
NEXT!
Translation - liberals cannot be held responsible for anything.
He set him up by letting him speak. Acosta entered the trap willingly.
Some of the Dims realize Acosta looked bad with his unconsented touching of the woman so they are explaining why is wasn't Acosta's fault - Trump made him do it.
TRUMP MADE HIM DO IT!
The left accused the CIA of being behind the murder of John Lennon, so this comes as no surprise.
Excuse me, but where was Connelly's outrage when Barack Obama unleashed the US Justice system on a Fox reporter?
REMEMBER THIS?---At his recent comeback appearance, Obama lacerated Pres Trump, saying: " I complained plenty about Fox News, but you never heard me call them enemies of the people.” (Source —--comeback rally at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign).
REALITY CHECK----N-o-o-o-o, Obama didnt do that....he just unleashed the full force of the DOJ, in the person of AG Eric Holder, to pounce on Fox reporter James Rosen AND to intimidate Rosen's family. Holder and Obama issued a court order for Fox News reporter James Rosen's emails, that labeled Rosen a criminal "co-conspirator." More likely Fox News said things or published stories Obama didn't like.......or got too close to unveiling his criminality.
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SOURCE theguardian.com
Circa 2013
Obama and AG Holder did more than seize a Fox News reporter’s emails while suggesting he was a criminal “co-conspirator” in a leak case — it did so under one of the most serious wartime laws in America, the Espionage Act. It is now well known that the Obama justice department has prosecuted more government leakers under the 1917 Espionage Act than all prior administrations combined - in fact, double the number of all such prior prosecutions.
But as the controversy over the Obama and Holder’s pursuit of the phone records of AP reporters illustrated, this obsessive fixation in defense of secrecy also targets, and severely damages, journalists specifically and the news-gathering process in general.
New revelations emerged yesterday in the Washington Post that are perhaps the most extreme yet when it comes to the DOJ’s attacks on press freedoms. It involves the prosecution of State Department adviser Stephen Kim, a naturalized citizen from South Korea who was indicted in 2009 for allegedly telling Fox News’ chief Washington correspondent, James Rosen, that US intelligence believed North Korea would respond to additional UN sanctions with more nuclear tests - something Rosen then reported. Kim did not obtain unauthorized access to classified information, nor steal documents, nor sell secrets, nor pass them to an enemy of the US.
Instead, the DOJ alleges that he merely communicated this innocuous information to a journalist - something done every day in Washington - and, for that, this arms expert and long-time government employee faces more than a decade in prison for “espionage”.
The focus of a Post report is that the Obama DOJ’s surveillance of Rosen extended far beyond even what Obama did to AP reporters. The FBI tracked Rosen’s movements in and out of the State Department, traced the timing of his calls, and - most amazingly - obtained a search warrant to read two days worth of his emails, as well as all of his emails with Kim. In this case, said the Post, “investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material.” It added that “court documents in the Kim case reveal how deeply investigators explored the private communications of a working journalist”.
But what makes this revelation particularly disturbing is that Obama's DOJ, in order to get this search warrant, insisted that Fox's Rosen - a journalist - committed serious crimes. The DOJ specifically argued that by encouraging his source to disclose classified information - something investigative journalists do every day - Rosen himself broke the law.
Describing an affidavit from FBI agent Reginald Reyes filed by the DOJ, the Post reports [emphasis added]: “Reyes wrote that there was evidence Rosen had broken the law, ‘at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator’. That fact distinguishes his case from the probe of the AP, in which the news organization is not the likely target. Using italics for emphasis, Reyes explained how Rosen allegedly used a ‘covert communications plan’ and quoted from an e-mail exchange between Rosen and Kim that seems to describe a secret system for passing along information. . . .
However, it remains an open question whether it’s ever illegal, given the First Amendment’s protection of press freedom, for a reporter to solicit information. No reporter, including Rosen, has been prosecuted for doing so.” Under US law, it is not illegal to publish classified information. That fact, along with the First Amendment’s guarantee of press freedoms, is what has prevented the US government from ever prosecuting journalists for reporting on what the US government does in secret. This newfound theory of the Obama DOJ - that a journalist can be guilty of crimes for “soliciting” the disclosure of classified information - is a means for circumventing those safeguards and criminalizing the act of investigative journalism itself.
These latest revelations show that this is not just a theory but one put into practice, as the Obama and Holder submitted official court documents accusing a journalist of committing crimes by doing this. ---Snip---
Obama and Holder wouldnt lie to a court of law. Would they?
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FREEPER ACTION NOW--CONTACT CNN:
CNN HQ Atlanta 404-827-1500.
CNN corporate 404-827-1700
CNN corporate fax 404-827-2600.
Customer service, Washington DC 202-898-7900.
TALKING POINTS: Acosta's disrespect for the presidency should not be tolerated.
Even if the “touching” may have been contrived (and it may have been), Acosta’s lack of respect in addressing the President over the last two years earned him the time out.
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