Since departing CNN last month after more than two decades at the network as an anchor and White House Correspondent, among othe roles, Jim Acosta is ready to let loose. Or, looser still.
Speaking on The Daily Beast Podcast with Samantha Bee and Joanna Coles, Acosta called his frequent sparring partner President Donald Trump’s second term “perhaps even more disturbing than the first, flagging the administration’s moves to have “vacuumed up private data, laid off thousands, and gutted key institutions like the FAA and nuclear security.”
But Acosta isn’t just analyzing from the sidelines—he’s issuing a direct challenge.
“I challenge him to a sit-down interview,” Acosta declared of Trump. “The thing he needs to be asked more than anything is whether he has any remorse, any regret for what took place on January 6.” He slammed Trump’s blanket pardons for Jan. 6 rioters as “an act of aggression against democracy” and dismissed his continued election fraud claims as “highly destructive.”
What worries Acosta most? “Younger generations are being immersed in this pool of lies. It’s all over TikTok, all over social media. The propaganda machine is relentless.”
To fight back, he urged reporters to hit Trump by denying what he craves above all else: airtime. “One of the most important things in the world to Donald Trump is having those cameras around him. If those cameras are taken away, he will learn a lesson that he can’t mess with us.”
Now operating as an independent journalist, Acosta is reveling in his newfound freedom. “The beautiful part about going independent is that you can just tell the truth in an unvarnished way and let it rip,” he said. “No tiptoeing through the tulips. We don’t have time for that.”
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