Watch: 'The View' Host Claims White House Intern Who Grabbed Mic from Acosta Guilty of a Crime
The co-hosts of ABC’s “The View” spent a segment of Friday’s show discussing the previous day’s presidential news conference.
Specifically, they expressed mixed opinions on the White House’s decision to revoke CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s press credentials following a heated exchange with President Donald Trump.
The Trump administration has come under fire for using what critics say is a doctored video of Acosta’s exchange with a female intern attempting to take the microphone from his hand.
His behavior was later listed as a cause for his press pass revocation, but one attorney on the morning talk show said she saw the evidence much differently.
REPORTER’S WHITE HOUSE CREDENTIALS SUSPENDED: Just when you thought the White House’s relationship with the media couldn’t get worse, yesterday’s press conference happened — the co-hosts react to Pres. Trump’s confrontation with CNN’s Jim Acosta. https://t.co/OlR3TjWXeb pic.twitter.com/usPNGQ0tRy
— The View (@TheView) November 8, 2018
“For me, when I saw that, I learned very early on that what I saw was a battery — not by Jim Acosta but by the young White House aide,” Sunny Hostin said.
The perspective drew an incredulous reaction from co-host Meghan McCain, but Hostin cited the law in making her case that the woman could have technically run afoul of the law when she grabbed the microphone from Acosta’s hand.
“If you’re holding something and you snatch this from me,” she said, holding a prop from the table as an example, “this cup is now an extension of me and that means you’ve battered me. You’ve assaulted me.”
McCain sarcastically asked if Hostin was suggesting “that White House intern should be arrested” for her actions at the news conference.
“I’m telling you what the law is,” she replied.
Hostin went on to denounce the White House’s excuse for taking Acosta’s credentials.
“I think what’s terrible is that the White House press secretary sent out an edited, doctored video fast forwarding what we just saw, trying to imply that he assaulted her,” she said. “So that’s coming from the White House and that’s really despicable.”
She also addressed McCain’s concern that Acosta is becoming part of the news instead of covering the president.
“The other thing is when you’re talking about Jim Acosta being the headline, if you think about the reporter that Jim Acosta is, Jim Acosta is a reporter who covered the war in Iraq from Baghdad,” she said.
Citing his experience covering leaders in the U.S. and abroad, Hostin described Acosta as a model journalist with a record of “holding power to account for their actions.”
She claimed it was Trump, not Acosta, who had changed the dynamic.
“He’s done it with Obama and he’s done it with Trump,” Hostin said. “And the issue is Trump doesn’t like it.”
McCain continued with her criticism of Acosta, asserting that he has become “a household name everywhere because of the Trump administration.”
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