With Jim Acosta Tape, the White House Turns Light into Art

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When President Donald Trump saw, a White House aide took a microphone from CNN's Jim Acosta, during a press conference in the East Room of the White House, in Washington.

By Evan Vucci / AP / REX / Shutterstock.

"I was just refused entry [White House], "CNN Jim Acosta tweeted on Wednesday night. "The Secret Service just told me that I could not enter the WH field for 8pm." A few hours earlier, Acosta, the self-appointed gladiator from the White House press corps ("Will you stop calling the press an enemy of the people, sir?" once scream from the back of a room), again faced with Donald Trump, asking why the president used the word "invasion" to refer to migrant caravans traveling to the US to seek asylum. The exchange culminated in Trump calling Acosta a "rude, horrible person," and the White House apprentice trying to recover the mic. The replay showed Acosta reflexively dropped his hand, accidentally crashing into the apprentice's arm when he dropped off. This, it seems, is enough for the White House to make one of the most striking dirty campaigns to date. "We will … never tolerate reporters placing their hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House apprentice," the secretary press Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted Wednesday night, making it sound as if Acosta might be the next Bill Clinton.

As a result, the White House is asking Trump's allies to show primary loyalty: not to trust their own eyes. And thanks to the years of conditioning where they shouted Trump's "hysterical" ugliness, many were too willing to obey him. When the press rises to the Acosta defense— "I sat next to @Acosta at today's press conference and did not watch it" put his hand & # 39; on young apprentices, as alleged by the White House, " tweeted Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason, who also attached several photos of the incident – Trump's base began to accuse Acosta of "Karate chopping" the apprentice doctor, suggested he deserved to be expelled. " @RealDonaldTrump WH took action on the karate @ Acosta pieces from the arms of a woman's aide. What will @CNN do? " tweeted Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton.

Others pile up. "This type of physical aggressiveness with young women is inappropriate," added Senior federalist editor Mollie Hemingway. "Asked repeatedly to act like an adult, refused, karate-cut when the internship finally appeared to give the mic to the next reporter, etc. This is only a behavior that cannot be maintained from a grown man." Many proved intimidating willing to comply with the White House's implicit request that they ignore the evidence before them. "There is a strong debate about the degree that the WH must choose to choose who reports POTUS. But I am confused by this claim that Sanders lied when he said Acosta put his hand on the woman, who was just trying to do her job, " write Omri Ceren, a national security advisor for Ted Cruz. "I saw the video. With my eyes. "Meanwhile, others started sharing others, More misleading videos, posted by Sanders and reinforced by many on the right, which made Acosta's attitude look more aggressive than before. This comes from conspiracy theorists and Infowars correspondents Paul Joseph Watson, who, as much as possible to show, seems to have selectively accelerated recording.

However, even among those on the right, there are people in power – people who might be jolted when asked to doubt the strength of their own perceptions. "This is not what happened," insist Ben Shapiro. "You could have banned him for refusing to obey the normal rules of the press room. No need to say something that happened that didn't. "" After Trump joked [Greg] Gianforte bodyslamming Ben Jacobs The White House can't get out of the couch unconscious now, " quoted Daily Caller Correspondent Chuck Ross. But it was a controversial attitude to take, as a radio host Erick Erickson seen when he held back his defense with an apology: "Yes, I'm sorry to oppose the tribe … I don't think this is @Acosta karate cutting off a woman as a few claims. [He] actually pulled his arm back very quickly when he realized he had touched it and said, "I'm sorry, ma'am." All this is ridiculous. "

From a forgiving perspective, recordings are a prime example of two political factions who see what they want to see, perhaps twisting the evidence to better suit their point of view ("So the thing Acosta turns into an ideological partisan version of blue and black dresses," Comment' John Podhoretz joking around) But the implications of the White House Orwellian decision are far more worrying. Even before the midterm, the government had the habit of stretching the truth to the point of weakness, after trying to convince reporters cadres that the sun was not, in fact, in the sky. After Tuesday's electoral defeat, Trump's understanding that his back was leaning against the wall seemed to be increasing, with a source who told my colleague Gabriel Sherman that he was "very upset" and "very depressed." What happened to this bad mood? For one, immediate shooting from the Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which has been read as a top attack Robert Mueller Russian Probe. For others, a large, prolonged campaign against one of Trump's favorite reporters, which seems like he likes to compete. And when the spin engine rotates, it pushes the factions in the country further and further apart. "What's the point. Seriously," asking columnist And Hodges. "What we all do here. If we can't really approve the evidence from our own eyes, what's the point of even trying to get involved. "

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect Omri Ceren's shared original Acosta video, not edited by Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

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