On “Fox News Sunday,” anchor Chris Wallace pressed White House Counsel Kellyanne Conway for answers about the Jim Acosta video.
WALLACE: As you know, I have been very critical of Acosta’s behavior myself, but I want to ask you about two responses by the White House. First, to tweet a video that was clearly altered to make it look like it was more of a physical confrontation than it really was – although I do think it was inappropriate. And second, to pull Acosta’s pass…
CONWAY: Well, Chris, first of all, what do you mean by “edited,” or as others are saying, “doctored” video? He either put his hands on her and grabbed the mic back or he did not – and he clearly did.
WALLACE: He clearly did, but the video was altered, and there are experts who have looked at it, to make it look speeded up, to make it look –
CONWAY: By that, do you mean sped up?
WALLACE: Pardon?
CONWAY: Well, that’s not altered, that’s sped up. They do it all the time in sports to see if there’s actually a first down or a touchdown. So I have to disagree with the overwrought description of this video being doctored as if we put somebody else’s arm in there. He should have apologized to that young aide, and as far as I know, he has not…
On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted the following video:
The video shows a White House aide attempting to remove a wireless microphone from CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s hand. Acosta grips the microphone with his right hand, while his left hand moves downward, coming into contact with the aide’s arm.
This incident led to Acosta having his press credentials revoked by the Trump administration. However, some have claimed that the video sent out by Sanders was “doctored” or “altered” in order to make Acosta’s hand motion look more severe than it actually was.
The Associated Press released a video in which an independent video analyst breaks down the differences between the original video and the version tweeted out by Sanders. The analyst found that the Sanders video was very minutely slowed down, and then sped up, “which makes [Acosta’s hand movement] feel a lot more aggressive.”
The Wall Street Journal released a similar analysis in which they show that in the Sanders version, multiple frames are paused just prior to Acosta making contact with the aide’s arm, which makes what follows appear more severe.
Whether or not Sanders shared the video with the knowledge that it was altered is unclear. As of publication, the White House Press Secretary has not deleted the tweet.