Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted CNN’s Jim Acosta on Tuesday after Acosta defended communist China against criticism from President Donald Trump during the White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing.
Acosta tweeted: “Other scapegoats blamed by Trump: China. Obama administration.”
Cruz responded, “Why is CNN apologizing for the Communist Party of China? You’re supposed to be journalists, not CCP propagandists.”
Why is CNN apologizing for the Communist Party of China? You’re supposed to be journalists, not CCP propagandists. https://t.co/pJDeJyTHKx
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 14, 2020
Acosta also defended the World Health Organization (WHO), which did not tell the truth about the extent of the outbreak in China, writing, “Trump is accusing the WHO of mishandling the Coronavirus pandemic while avoiding his own failures on the subject.”
Cruz responded, “Jim, any ‘reporting’ on this is fraudulent without acknowledging the WHO’s blatant schilling for the CCP:”
Jim, any “reporting” on this is fraudulent without acknowledging the WHO’s blatant schilling for the CCP: https://t.co/r5nKcC9FfQ https://t.co/9KtxNiCNay
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 14, 2020
Cruz included a link in his tweet to a tweet from the WHO on January 14 where the WHO stated that there was no human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus in China.
Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China🇨🇳. pic.twitter.com/Fnl5P877VG
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 14, 2020
Donald Trump Jr. also hit Acosta for his pro-China activism.
Republican strategist Andrew Surabian wrote: “Well that didn’t take long…CNN’s Jim Acosta quite literally defending/running interference for the Chinese Communist Party. I’m sure Xi sincerely appreciates his tweets. You can’t make this stuff up!”
Trump Jr. responded by proposing a name change for CNN, writing, “Maybe time for a name change from CNN to Xi NN. It’s much more fitting.”
Maybe time for a name change from CNN to Xi NN. It’s much more fitting. https://t.co/vdbEwo8nI5
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 14, 2020
It is a fact that China covered up the outbreak that originated in Wuhan and has repeatedly lied to the world about the extent of the outbreak that they had.
Numerous officials have stated that China’s lying to the world prevented other countries from understanding how serious the coronavirus was and thus delayed actions from other countries to stop the outbreak from spreading.
White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said earlier this month: “We can talk about why didn’t Italy do something or Spain do something or Germany do something, or we can really say, right now, we all can do something. We can do the social distancing and all of the pieces that we know is starting to work around the globe in country after country. Then when we get through all of this, we can ask the questions about could we have done some piece of this better as a global community. I will remind you that on February 3, the head of the W.H.O. said there was no reason to ever do a travel ban. It wasn’t until January 14th that we knew that there was human-to-human transmission.”
Other political commentators added detail on who Acosta was defending.
“Right now @Acosta is defending a country that expels, and murders journalists,” Stephen Miller wrote on Twitter. “Don’t ever let him lecture that he cares about press freedoms, ever again.”
Right now @Acosta is defending a country that expels, and murders journalists. Don't ever let him lecture that he cares about press freedoms, ever again.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 14, 2020
Former White House adviser Stephen Cheung hammered Acosta for his apparent support of China.
‘As someone of Chinese heritage, I am sickened to watch @CNN become the propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party,” Cheung wrote on Twitter. “A reminder: Tiananmen Square. One-child policy = murdering of children. Shut down of Hong Kong protesters. Religious persecution. Lied about Coronavirus.”
As someone of Chinese heritage, I am sickened to watch @CNN become the propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party.
A reminder:
🇨🇳Tiananmen Square
🇨🇳One-child policy = murdering of children
🇨🇳Shut down of Hong Kong protesters
🇨🇳Religious persecution
🇨🇳Lied about Coronavirus https://t.co/MsFfy9ORrC— Steven Cheung (@CaliforniaPanda) April 15, 2020
Human Events Managing Editor Ian Miles Cheong wrote: “As a Chinese person this is disgusting because you think China should somehow be absolved of responsibility because… why, exactly? China is responsible for the coronavirus pandemic and they must be held to full account.”
As a Chinese person this is disgusting because you think China should somehow be absolved of responsibility because… why, exactly? China is responsible for the coronavirus pandemic and they must be held to full account. https://t.co/ld1an3AoFU
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) April 15, 2020