MSNBC host Ali Velshi had on former CNN anchor Jim Acosta to complain about President Donald Trump's treatment of journalists.
UVA Center for Politics
The First 100 Days
March 25, 2025
JIM ACOSTA: You know, I understand Trump has an issue with water pressure. He would like the showers to have better water pressure. I'm -- I'm on board with that, and then that's about it. That's about it. Listen, I -- all kidding aside -- I do think, to be serious about this -- I do think the soul of this country is in danger. When the President of the United States comes into office and immediately pardons and commutes the sentences of all of those January 6 rioters and insurrectionists, that is a betrayal of this country of the highest order. And you can be a Republican -- you can be a Democrat. It's a betrayal, and, by the way, it was a slap in the face of this country that almost cost the life of Marc (Short)'s boss -- Vice President of the United States Mike Pence who you rightly called a hero for his actions from that day.
I will say that I have to echo what Tara (Setmayer) is saying because, by and large, what Trump has decided to do is make his second term in office about revenge and retribution. That's why he's put people like Kash Patel in charge of the FBI. And, as Marc said, you know, Trump was elected by and large because of the idea that he might bring down the cost of eggs and bring down prices at the grocery store -- bring down the price of gas. How is all of that going so far, I mean?
And to give him high marks on the issue of immigration, I mean, I've seen some studies that suggest that the amount of deportations that are happening right now in this country are roughly where the deportations were when Joe Biden was President. I covered the second term of Barack Obama -- the immigrant advocate community was hopping mad at him back in those days. They used to call him the "deporter in chief." So one way you can score cheap points with the American people is by deporting people. One thing we can't get into the business of, as far as I, you know, I'm concerned, is you can't just scoop people up off the street because they look like they might be illegally in the country because of their tattoos or the way they dress or their skin color or the way they speak, and then put them on airplanes and defy a judge's order -- which is what just took place with these Venezuelan migrants. The judge said, "Turn those planes around" -- the President of the United States and his team did not do that.
And so we are, I think, facing potentially a constitutional crisis that's coming down the pike, and we can Hardy Har Har all we want about Signal chats and national security information being divulged on an encrypted messaging app, but I am far more concerned about what is going to take place when a judge or even the Supreme Court says, "No, Mr. President, you can't do these things," and he does it anyway. And so I think that is why you're starting to see these town halls that are cropping up all over the country with AOC and Bernie drawing thousands of people. People are kind of coming out of the slumber, the state of depression, the fetal position they were in during the period between the election and Trump's inauguration. And they're starting to rise up and say, "We're not going to tolerate this."
And one other quick point that I'll make so that we can get into the discussion: Nobody elected Elon Musk to be the shadow President of the United States. The idea that we could have a country where the world's richest man can buy his way into the halls of power and then take a bunch of ass-wipe 20-year-olds and go through the agencies of the federal government and vacuum up our personal data, and then go around calling Social Security a "ponzi scheme" -- which is something our senior citizens rely on -- that to me is outrageous.
And it speaks to the danger that -- I think, Larry (Sabato), you and I have talked about before -- Tara and I have talked about before -- of the Citizens United decision when you allow dark money -- corporate money -- richest man in the world money -- to flood into our systems. So we've got a lot of problems that we're dealing with. We're sort of like the little boy in front of the dike putting all of our fingers and toes into the dam right now to keep it from breaking. And Trump is going to do everything that he can to break that dam, and the American people are going to have to live with the consequences.
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The ability for journalists to ask tough questions of the President of the United States is vital to our democracy, but Donald Trump, of course, has consistently shown his disdain for tough questions from people he perceives to be unfriendly. I want to take you back to 2018 just after the midterm elections to this exchange with then-CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta.
JIM ACOSTA: Your campaign had an ad showing migrants climbing over walls and so on.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP (interrupting): Well, that's true. They weren't actors.
ACOSTA: Well, they're not going to be doing that.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: They weren't actors. Well, no, it's true. Do you think they were actors? They weren't actors -- they didn't come from Hollywood. These were people -- this was an actual, you know -- it happened a few days ago.
ACOSTA: They're hundreds of miles away, though. They're hundreds and hundreds of mile away.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: You know what, I think you should, honestly, I think you should let me run the country and you run CNN. And if you did it well, your ratings would be much better.
ACOSTA: If I may ask --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That's enough.
ACOSTA: -- one other question. Mr. President, if I may -- if I may ask one other question? Are you worried the other folks --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That's enough. That's enough.
ACOSTA: Mr. President.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That's enough.
ACOSTA: The other folks --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That's enough.
ACOSTA: Pardon me, Ma'm.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That's enough.
ACOSTA: Mr. President, I have one other question if I may ask on the Russia investigation. Are you concerned that you may have indictments --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I'm not concerned about anything with the Russia investigation because it's a hoax. That's enough -- put down the mic.
ACOSTA: Mr. President, are you worried about indictments coming down in this investigation?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I'll tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn't be working for CNN. You're a very rude person -- the way you treat Sarah Huckabee is horrible, and the way you treat other people are horrible. You shouldn't treat people that way. Go ahead. Go ahead, Peter, go ahead.
PETER ALEXANDER: In Jim's defense, I've traveled with him and watched him. He's a diligent reporter --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I'm not a big fan of yours either.
ALEXANDER: I understand.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: To be honest with you.
ALEXANDER: So let me ask you a question if I can. You repeatedly said --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: You aren't the best.
ALEXANDER: Mr. President, you repeatedly over the course of --
(Acosta stands up and start speaking again inaudibly without a microphone.)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Just sit down, please.
(Acosta says something inaudibly.)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, when you report fake news -- no -- when you report fake news -- which CNN does a lot. You are the enemy of the people.
VELSHI: He said it all there. There's Donald Trump throwing Peter Alexander under the bus. That's what happened in Trump's first term when he was confronted with questions that he didn't like from people like Jim Acosta. This time he appears poised to eliminate the tough questions altogether by banishing reporters from his presence who might dare to ask one. The man you just saw in that clip -- Jim Acosta -- joins me now. He's the former chief White House correspondent for CNN. These days he's an independent journalist. He's the host of the Jim Acosta Show on Substack, Youtube, and Apple Podcast. He's the author of the important book, The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America. And he's a former colleague of mine and an old friend. ...
There was a lot in the clip which is why I needed to play it because he did say, "Enemy of the people." And that's the distinction, right? You are whatever you want to call it -- a thorn in the ass, sort of thorn in the side, pain in the ass, whatever -- whatever you want to call it. That's what your job is. Your job is to hold people to account. I had somebody tweet this morning to say, "Fine, you shouldn't be covering the White House. You should be covering the American people and what's going on in the street." But it's really important to hold leaders to account no matter what country you're in.
ACOSTA: Yeah, that's absolutely right, Ali. I mean, I tell folks all the time, you know, the press -- we're not the enemy of the people -- we're defenders of the people, and we're here to hold their feet to the fire. And one of the reasons why Donald Trump behaves that way -- he's still behaving that way is because, one, he can't handle the hard questions, and, two, there's just a part of him that thinks we the people don't have the right to ask these kinds of questions. And he's just wrong on both counts. And, Ali, you've been doing this for a long time. You know what we have to do. We have a job to do, and we're going to continue to do it. And for the folks over at the White House right now doing what we do for a living, I mean, my advice to them is to stand firm -- stand your ground.
