White House Threatens to Revoke Jim Acosta’s Pass Again, CNN Requests Emergency Hearing

By Shane Ryan  |  November 19, 2018 | 10:55am
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Politics News Media
White House Threatens to Revoke Jim Acosta’s Pass Again, CNN Requests Emergency Hearing

Last week, a federal judge ordered the White House to reinstate Jim Acosta as an accredited White House reporter following a ridiculous spat in which Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted out a doctored video purporting to show him “getting physical” with an intern. The issue appeared to be resolved, but if you’ve spent any time watching our government for the past two years, you probably already knew that this wouldn’t be the end of the story.

CNN reports that the White House has apparently warned Jim Acosta that his press pass may once again be revoked at the end of the month. That sent the network right back to the U.S. District Court that ruled in its favor last week.

“The White House is continuing to violate the First and 5th Amendments of the Constitution,” the network said in a statement. “These actions threaten all journalists and news organizations. Jim Acosta and CNN will continue to report the news about the White House and the President.”

The judge in that case ruled that Acosta had a right to due process which the White House violated. However, it was only a temporary restraining order, which means that after 14 days it’s no longer in effect. The White House quickly wrote Acosta a letter outlining his alleged indiscretions, which Brian Stelter recognized as a preliminary step. He wrote:

From the looks of the letter, the W.H. is trying to establish a paper trail that will empower the administration to boot Acosta again at the end of the month.

Of course, when you consider that Trump and the White House are in all-out war against any media outlet with the temerity to criticize him—a war that includes undermining journalism with phrases like “fake news” and goes as far as declaring the media “the enemy of the people”—it’s no surprise that they’re refusing to simply give up on this particular fight. To allow Acosta to retain his spot without consequence would be to show weakness, and an aspiring strongman can’t be seen to lose ground to an entity he’s trying to crush…constitution and tradition be damned.

 
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