A longtime adversary of President Donald Trump has a plan for a key group to take away what Trump craves the most — attention.
EX-CNN journalist Jim Acosta, who was targeted by Trump during his first administration, described in an interview with MS NOW what it might take for Trump to stop attacking the media, after the arrest of independent journalists former CNN anchor Don Lemon, Georgia Fort and several others who were targeted by the Department of Justice last week.
Acosta signaled that Trump's deep concern over the fate of the midterm elections in November has fueled his latest attacks on the press.
"Donald Trump is in a place right now where he's very spooked about the upcoming midterm elections," Acosta said. "He just had the FBI go into an election headquarters in Fulton County, and we may have reached the arresting journalists phase of his authoritarian project.
"And my sense of it is that if he continues to arrest journalists and this is a serious proposal, I think the rest of the news organizations in this country, the major networks, the major newspapers, need to pull their teams out of the White House."
Acosta recommended that media groups could band together and send Trump a clear message.
"One of the things that Donald Trump relies upon is having the press in there, taking his picture and putting him on TV," Acosta said. "It's what he likes and craves. And so I say, if he's going to continue to arrest journalists — take it. Take it away from him.
"And I just think at this point it's going to take some kind of collective action. And I just think, you know, there's been so much bending the knee over the last year that it's emboldened him. And so I think what's needed at this point is just strong, determined action to send the message that we're just not going to tolerate this. And we also need to make sure that folks like Don [Lemon] understand that we all support him. This shouldn't be a moment where folks say, well, you know, 'Don did this or that,' or 'maybe I don't like Don. And so I'm not going to support him.' No."
Acosta has had plenty of experience of pushing back against the Trump administration. In 2018, the White House revoked Acosta's press pass and barred him from covering the president. Acosta has described how the president's approval was not his concern.
"If you want to be liked, don't become a journalist," he said. "Go become a veterinarian or something like that. We're not the most likable folks. But what we do is vitally important to democracy. And it seems to me that our democracy is not going to be a good place if journalists are being jailed. And people need to understand that, ... we're all in this together."
