A new White House line in defense of massive layoffs throughout the federal government that have now affected military veterans triggered former CNN anchor Jim Acosta into a passionate condemnation of Trump adviser Alina Habba’s comments – and the administration's DOGE-led cuts.
“Perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment, or are not willing to come to work” Habba told reporters Tuesday outside the White House lawn when a reporter pointed out that military veterans are among the thousands of government employees who have suddenly found themselves unemployed.
She added: “And we can’t, you know, I wouldn’t take money from you and pay somebody and say, 'Sorry, you know, they’re not going to come to work.' It’s just not acceptable.”
That position drew the ire of Acosta, who took to his Substack show, “The Jim Acosta Show,” hours later to tear into Habba – who he insisted owed veterans “a whole lot more than, ‘well, perhaps they’re not fit to work.’”
“Give me a break, give me a break,” he said.
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“I mean there's tone deaf and then there's what Alina Habba said,” Acosta told his viewers Tuesday. “And I think this typifies the attitude that we’ve been hearing from the Trump administration. They seem to think that people who work for the federal government don’t actually work.”
He added: “Tell that to the people who are trying to cure cancer and the NIH, tell that to air traffic controllers that work at the FAA, tell that to the people who work at the USAID…people who protect the president at the U.S. Secret Service – they don’t work?
"Our military veterans are not waste, fraud and abuse,” he concluded.
Earlier in his show, Acosta said that President Donald Trump’s speech Tuesday night would come as a “bitter pill to swallow for a lot of Americans out there” who are “p---ed by the fact” that he would be delivering a joint address to Congress.
“When a lot of Americans feel like – and you can put me in this category – he should’ve been disqualified from the presidency a long time ago,” he said. "He has no business being there.”
Watch the clip below or at this link:
3.4.25 5pm ET Journalist Jim Acosta @Acosta w/
Acosta : "Our Military Veterans are not waste, fraud and abuse" responding to Alina Habba's comments about vets
Congresswoman Madeleine Dean @RepDeanPhillips
Disabled Vet, Aline Renault (Sp)
Former Congressman Max Rose… pic.twitter.com/IoBhGV7W0Y
— Jeff Storobinsky (@jeffstorobinsky) March 4, 2025