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Acosta probably saved himself with Trump -- even though press conference was a disaster: WaPo reporter

July 10, 2019 6:16PM ET

David Swerdlick (Image credit: CNN)

Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta's press conference excusing and deflecting blame for his sweetheart plea bargain with accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was, by all accounts a disaster.

And yet, on CNN's "The Situation Room," Washington Post journalist David Swerdlick told host Wolf Blitzer that he expects President Donald Trump is satisfied with Acosta's performance — and that his job may now be safe.

"From my point of view, did Secretary Acosta help himself on the PR front and with the president? I think the answer is yes," said Swerdlick. "President Trump likes people who go out cool as a cucumber, get everything down in the weeds and the legalese, and don't address the big moral questions."

"If the question is, did he explain the sweetheart deal? No," Swerdlick added. "He said at one point that Jeffrey Epstein, quote, 'needed to go to jail.' If he needed to go to jail, why did he get such a short sentence when he had 12 hours a day of work-release? When you're talking about a crime that involved sexual crimes involving children?"

Watch below:

Acosta probably saved himself with Trump -- even though press conference was a disaster: WaPo reporter

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