AMERICA'S "BULLY-IN-CHIEF" PICKS A FIGHT WITH CNN'S JIM ACOSTA AND OTHER REPORTERS

After reading this editorial, please express your own thoughts.  At the bottom, please click on the word "Comments" below the copyright and type your remarks in the box.  When finished,  please click on the word "Publish."  Please also share a link to this column with others in your e-mail directory and on social media.

This column - in part or in its entirety - may be freely shared among individuals, and it may be reprinted, republished, or quoted in any medium including broadcast, cable, satellite, print, Internet, and other forms of media, but only when crediting Gary B. Duglin and The Controversy.

     What appeared like the beginnings of a barroom brawl, Donald Trump - furious that Republicans lost the House of Representatives in the November 6th, 2018 midterm elections (although he won't admit it) - picked a fight with CNN's Jim Acosta at a press conference on November 7th.  Several hours later the White House announced in a statement by press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders that Acosta's White House press credentials - known as a "hard pass" - have been revoked "until further notice."  

     Trump entered in to a confrontation with Acosta because that's what Trump planned to do.  Let me repeat that.  It's what Trump planned to do.  With the "blue wave" victory by Democrats to take control of the House come January 3rd, 2019, I believe Trump needed to immediately get the Democrats big win out of the headlines and by attacking a veteran journalist from CNN, I think Trump thought his madness would prove successful. 

     In a heated exchange with Acosta, Trump used vicious words to verbally pummel CNN's chief White House correspondent.  "CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them.  You are a rude, terrible person.  You shouldn't be working for CNN."  Trump's cruel display of anger is one more demonstration of a man whose wicked temperament is reason enough that he is totally unfit to serve as president of the United States.  No American president has ever before addressed a reporter in such a disgusting, despicable and disgraceful manner.  

     As a response to The White House action, CNN issued their own statement in which the cable television network backed their employee.  "Jim Acosta has our full support."  Acosta has lost all privileges to The White House grounds.  According to CNN, Acosta's authorization to gain access to The White House has been stripped "in retaliation for his challenging questions at today's press conference."  CNN's statement went on to say, "This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better."

     Trump and Acosta have had an incendiary relationship throughout Trump's term. Prior to his unpresidential behavior at the news conference, Trump had already - in a tweet the same day - called the media "nasty and hostile."  The White House clearly lied in their remarks about Acosta as the Trump administration claims that during the fiery exchange Acosta was "placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern."  The White House accusation is totally untrue.  I watched the press conference live and have several times reviewed the tense back-and-forth between Acosta and Trump.  Jim Acosta never touched The White House intern.  CNN is correct when they insist that Sarah Huckabee Sanders "provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened."

   

     In other inflammatory communications at the same press conference, Trump also battled with NBC News national correspondent Peter Alexander and PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor. To Trump, Alexander graciously defended his CNN colleague.  "In Jim's defense, I've traveled with him and watched him.  He's a diligent reporter who busts his butt like the rest of us."  Trump pounced at Alexander with..."Well, I'm not a big fan of yours either."  
   

     As for Alcindor, she presented the following.  "There are some people that say that now the Republican Party is seen as supporting white nationalists because of your rhetoric.  What do you make of that?"  Trump argued..."That's such a racist question."  There, of course, was nothing inappropriate with Alcindor's question given Trump's declaration on October 22nd, 2018 that "I am a nationalist."  Nationalists are synonymous with Nazis, white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan.   

     It is so obvious that Trump is upset that Democrats kicked his butt in the House of Representative races.  It's further clear to me that Trump was on the warpath before the news conference began and wanted to engage in combat with what Trump has consistently labeled, "the enemy of the people."  CNN's Acosta - who Trump has sparred with before, but not with such explosive results - was, to my thinking, a pre-meditated target by Trump, so by creating a fracas with Acosta by demanding that he "sit down, sit down," it was one more example of Trump showing his true colors that being president isn't enough, but that he wants to be dictator of our country.  Remember that in June 2018, Trump - with a serious tone - told Fox News...that he wants Americans to treat him as North Koreans do Kim Jong-un. "He's the head of a country, and I mean, he's the strong head.  Don't let anyone think different.  He speaks and his people sit up at attention.  I want my people to do the same."  Republicans wanted to spin it that Trump was joking.  It is not at all funny for the president of the United States to jest that he wants to be dictator.  But that was his attitude in June...and from observing Trump's rabid rant at Jim Acosta...it's his mindset still.

     And that's The Controversy for today. 

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

Please express your personal opinions by following the instructions above.  And thank you for reading The Controversy.

Photo credits: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters (Donald Trump and CNN's Jim Acosta), NBC News, CNN, Yahoo News (Donald Trump, CNN's Jim Acosta and NBC's Peter Alexander) and MSNBC Screenshot (Donald Trump and Yamiche Alcindor of PBS)

Copyright 2018 Gary B. Duglin and TheControversy.net.  All Rights Reserved.