According to news reports, CNN’s Jim Acosta will leave the network after working there for almost 18 years.
During his career at the network, Acosta served as a correspondent between 2007 and February 2012, when he was promoted to be national political correspondent. He was promoted to senior White House correspondent in August 2013, then promoted to be chief White House correspondent on January 9, 2018. Concurrent with the beginning of the Biden administration, Acosta was named chief domestic correspondent and weekend anchor.
But Acosta, whose rancorous relationship with President Trump lasted the entire four years of Trump’s first term, was kicked out from his morning show this month by CNN and told he would henceforth anchor a show from midnight until 2 a.m. ET.
According to former CNN anchor Oliver Darcy, Acosta “signaled to associates in private conversations over the weekend that he intends to depart the network after it booted him from the morning programming lineup.”
On Wednesday, Acosta said to Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), “I was at the White House covering the first Trump administration when they had rioting outside of the White House. I mean, that was covered on CNN. This is not Fox. Congressman, you can‘t just spin a tale and pull the wool over people‘s eyes. This is CNN. This is the news. We are asking you to come on and tell the truth.”
“And that’s why more people are watching the Cartoon Network, SpongeBob reruns right now, Jim,” Burchett fired back, continuing, “Look, I left the White House during a riot. My life was threatened. My life has been threatened within the last few weeks, yet there‘s no coverage of that. And you all continue this, this narrative of attacking Trump. You just can‘t stand the fact that he won and that America spoke.”
In November 2018, President Trump got so fed up at Acosta for badgering him and refusing to relinquish the microphone at a press conference that he snapped, “That’s enough. Put down the mic. I tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN.”
FULL EXCHANGE: Trump vs. @Acosta
"Put down the mic…"
"You are a rude, terrible person…" pic.twitter.com/hdnNGd2xLc— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) November 7, 2018
In his book “The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America,” Acosta declared, “Neutrality for the sake of neutrality doesn’t serve us in the age of Trump.”
In November 2020, just days after the 2020 election, Acosta fancied himself a prognosticator, telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “He’s been tweeting, talking about how he won this state and that state. We have to pay attention to those tweets because he’s the president. After January 20th, he just goes back to another crack pot on the Internet.”
Former CNN producer Steve Krakauer said in April 2020, “Jim Acosta wants to be famous. I’ve written before, three years ago, that Acosta clearly aspires to use this opportunity to spar with President Trump, #Resistance Signal on Twitter and generally build his brand to move on to bigger things — a prime time show maybe, or at least a few late-night TV appearances. … Jim Acosta loves nothing more than Jim Acosta.”
