Jim Acosta: Networks Should Push Harder Against Trump Attacking Press; ‘The Only Solution to All of This Is Collective Action’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
COLEMAN: “You know, Jim, it is not necessarily every day that you see someone try and defend the notion of of piggy as a term of endearment, but here. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had an interesting defense of the quiet piggy comment made by the president. Let’s listen to some of what she had to say.”

[Clip starts]

LEAVITT: “Look, the president is very Frank and honest with everyone in this room. You’ve all seen it yourself. You’ve all experienced it yourselves. The president being Frank and open and honest to your faces rather than hiding behind your backs, is frankly, a lot more respectful than what you saw in the last administration, where you had a president who lied to your face and then didn’t speak to you for weeks and hid upstairs and didn’t take your questions. So I think everyone in this room should appreciate the frankness and the openness that you get from President Trump on a near-daily basis.”

[Clip ends]

LEAVITT: “Quiet, piggy. Frank, open and honest. Jim, what do you make of the press secretary’s response to the president’s comments?”

ACOSTA: “Well, let me be Frank and honest, Charles. You know, I think that the president I mean, we’ve seen this for a long time now, April. And I dealt with it when we were at the White House. I mean, when you’re close to the target, you know, he starts to, you know, go off on reporters. He’ll call them all sorts of names and so on. But I think this is less about how he handles the press and more about how he deals with women. Imagine, you know, the boss in your office talking to a female reporter. In that way, it wouldn’t be tolerated. That boss would be fired at any company. That boss would be fired. And imagine if this were your daughter, or your sister, or your mother being spoken to in this fashion. And that’s why I you know, I strongly believe and I there are people who disagree with me on this, that other folks in the press in the room should speak up in that moment and say, Mr. President, that is not appropriate. And, you know, and double down on the questions that were asked. Why didn’t you answer that question? Why are you resorting to personal attacks? Why can’t you take the heat? What’s going on here? And you know, to me, I think the only solution to all of this is collective action. We need to see the networks get together, perhaps with some of the major newspapers. Send a letter to the White House, send it to Karoline Leavitt and say, listen, if the president does not stop these attacks, we’re not coming into your Oval Office. We’re not going to ride with you on Air Force One. You can have fox and all these other sycophantic outlets covering you, but we’re just—“