Jim Acosta will soon be relegated to CNN’s after-midnight block, but in the meantime, he’s ensuring everyone knows why he was banished.
Infamous for accosting a female staffer during the first Trump administration while fighting over a microphone (a microcosm of his career if there ever was one), Acosta was pulled off the White House circuit during the Biden years to host a daytime television show. It’s gone about as well as you’d expect, with the “journalist” routinely placing third place in the ratings battle among the big three networks. Ever the trooper, though, that hasn’t stopped him from being as insufferable as humanly possible.
On Wednesday, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) found himself battling Acosta and ended up rhetorically bodying him in the process. As an aside, I still do not understand why any Republican goes on CNN when all its doing is helping make the left-wing network money, but that’s a discussion for another day.
There were several exchanges in which Burchett left Acosta fuming, and naturally, the topic of the day was January 6th because CNN is intent on going down with that ship.
ACOSTA: And I just want to ask you, if any of these people who were released from prison, if any of them commit crimes in the future, should Donald Trump take personal responsibility for that?
BURCHETT: No more than Joe Biden should take personal responsibility for the 14 million people, for Laken Riley losing her life because he didn’t have enough guts to enforce the law and back Americans.
ACOSTA: I’m not talking about Joe Biden.
BURCHETT: Well, you should be.
Can we stop and talk about what a stupid strawman that is? None of the people who were convicted for crimes related to January 6th were serving life sentences. All of them were either going to be released or already had been released, with only a few set to spend over a decade in jail. By Acosta’s logic, every aspect of the judicial system would be “responsible” for any future crime anyone ever commits because they weren’t locked away in solitary confinement until they took their last breath.
Burchett is right about the hypocrisy as well. Not once has Acosta criticized the pardons Joe Biden gave to murderers and rapists in the final days of his term. Only when Trump is involved is the CNN host suddenly morally repulsed, pretending that the average January 6th participant is some blood-thirsty criminal desperate to offend again.
Continuing, Acosta tried to take a shot at Fox News, suggesting that CNN is above the fray as a source of reliable information. Burchett was ready to go with the perfect response.
ACOSTA: This is not Fox, congressman. You can’t just spin a tale and pull the wool over people’s eyes. This is CNN. This is the news. We are asking you to come on and tell the truth.
BURCHETT: And that’s why more people are watching the Cartoon Network, Spongebob reruns right now. Jim, look, I left the White House during a riot. My life was threatened. My life has been threatened within the last few weeks, yet there’s no coverage of that. And you all continue this, this narrative of attacking Trump. You just can’t stand the fact that he won and that America spoke and that your view is very diminished.
ACOSTA: That’s not the case at all!
BURCHETT: And your view is very diminished!
I love Acosta’s faux journalist act where he asserts “This is CNN,” as if that’s not a negative indictment. What Burchett is saying is exactly right. The hacks on that left-wing network are infuriated that Donald Trump won a second term after they spent four years carrying water for Joe Biden. All of this continued caterwauling about January 6th is the equivalent of a child throwing a fit. No one cares anymore. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t bad and that some people didn’t do bad things, but it’s over now. It’s been four years and the American people have moved onto issues that actually affect them.
The pardons and commutations were necessary to clear the deck given how corruptly the Department of Justice operated in dealing with people who were there that day, many of which had no intention to do anything and simply walked around taking pictures. I know Acosta doesn’t want to accept that, but it doesn’t really matter what he wants. Every second that he continues to rant and rave is another second that shows how insanely irrelevant CNN is, and with that, I would once again suggest Republicans stop appearing on the network. There’s no reason to even give them the fodder. Let hacks like Acosta stew alone with their dozens of viewers.
