Before the Trump press office pulled Jim Acosta’s White House access, Samantha Bee was defending the CNN reporter’s right to do his job on Full Frontal.
Following a contentious exchange over Trump’s divisive rhetoric on immigrants at Wednesday’s marathon press conference, the president told Acosta, “CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them.”
“No, we should be ashamed of you working for us!” Bee replied. “Oh my God! You are at work!”
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“That press conference was upsetting to watch, but not as upsetting as it was for this woman,” Bee added, referring to the press aide whose job it was to try to wrestle the microphone from Acosta’s hand. Imitating her elaborate attempt to both stop Acosta from questioning the president and stay out of the way, Bee said, “I hate this job so much, oh my God, why am I doing this? This is horrible. And plié.”
In her statement on the matter, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders characterized the press aide’s situation very different, going so far as to accuse Acosta of physically attacking her.
“President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration,” Sanders said in a statement. “We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question.”
“This is a lie,” Acosta tweeted in response.
