CNN’s Jim Acosta says ‘we are not the enemy of the people’ in attack on Trump as he returns to office
CNN host Jim Acosta announced the incoming Trump administration with an on-air message that the media “is not the enemy of the people.”
During a CNN segment on Thursday, the liberal journalist – who became known for his outbursts as a White House correspondent during Trump’s first term – gave a monologue about the importance of the news media to democracy after President Biden warned that the “free press is crumbling” in his farewell address.
Acosta appeared to suggest that democracy would be under attack in Trump’s second term and referred to Trump’s criticism of the press against the “enemy of the people.” even Acosta wrote a poorly received memoir using those words in the title.
“We are not the enemies of the people. We are the defenders of the people. Walter Cronkite once said, ‘freedom of the press is not just important to democracy. It is democracy,'” Acosta said in a clip first shared on X by NewsBusters editor-in-chief Curtis Houck.
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CNN anchor Jim Acosta reminded his viewers just days before Trump’s inauguration that the media “is not the enemy of the people.”
During the segment, the presenter mentioned a line from Biden’s farewell address on Wednesday about threats to journalists.
“He warned that the free press is crumbling in this country. I would add, that’s only if we the people allow that to happen,” Acosta said.
The presenter continued by emphasizing the importance of journalists in protecting the truth.
“Journalists exist to seek the truth, to tell people’s stories, to raise voices that would otherwise not be heard, to shed light on injustice and hold the powerful accountable,” he said.
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He ended the segment by pulling out a pink sign allegedly given to him by an anti-Trump protester during Trump’s first term.
“I want to take a moment to show you something. A woman sent me this sign eight years ago. She wore it here at the march on Washington. She wrote on the back of the sign to me and the press here in DC, ‘you have our support.'”
He appeared to be referring to the far-left Women’s March on Washington and across the country that first greeted Trump when he took office in 2017.
The text on the sign read: “Marching for Jim Acosta and a FREE Press.”
“To Nora, wherever you are, I’ll get back to you right away. I’m reporting from Washington, I’m Jim Acosta,” he said.
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CNN’s Jim Acosta was known to be hostile to President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration. ((REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst) )
Acosti is no stranger to anti-Trump while on the job. While he was CNN’s chief White House correspondent during Trump’s first term, he would spar routinely with the then president during press conferences.
During one contentious moment at a 2018 White House press conference, Acosta refused to stop taking questions, forcing Trump to tell him “Enough!”
When a White House intern approached to take the microphone from the reporter’s hand, he refused to hand it over, prompting a brief exchange between the two. In response, the White House revoked Acosta’s press pass. Later the judge ruled in favor of CNNordering the government to return the pass.
Acosta also quoted the Statue of Liberty during a question in the briefing room, called Kim Kardashian frivolous for meeting with Trump on prison reform, and came out dramatically briefing room once when then press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would not say that the press is not the enemy of the people.
Asked about Acosta’s sign and apparent message to Trump on Thursday, a CNN spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “Jim spoke about the importance of a free press, something that all journalists and citizens should agree on.”
