Liberal ex-CNN anchor Jim Acosta took a shot at Donald Trump supporters in an interview published Friday, suggesting that half of the country was uninterested in the truth.
Speaking with The Washingtonian shortly after his exit earlier this year from CNN and launching his new Substack video outlet, Acosta said news outlets should put more emphasis on fact-checking Trump in his second administration.
“I think it does make a difference,” he said. “Half the country still wants to hear the truth.”
Acosta said he used to tell college students that they shouldn’t go into journalism because of how much time they lose, but how he’s pleading for “reinforcements.”
“When I go talk to college students, I used to say, ‘Don’t go into this business. You’re going to lose your weekends and your holidays, and your mother’s going to say, You don’t call me anymore.’ And now I tell them, ‘Please come into this business, because we need reinforcements,’” he told The Washingtonian.
Acosta didn’t trouble to hide his feelings about Trump while at CNN.
As a White House correspondent, he often sparred with Trump and his press secretaries in melodramatic fashion and editorialized during his reporting, such as scolding Kim Kardashian for being at the White House to discuss criminal justice reform, complaining about the term “Wuhan coronavirus” being xenophobic, and reciting the poem from the Statue of Liberty.
He was moved off the White House beat and onto an anchor job as President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
Shortly after Trump’s return to office this year, he was offered an assuredly low-rated midnight slot and turned it down, leaving CNN in January.
In a “town hall” he held with a series of liberal media figures this week, including former CNN colleague Don Lemon, Acosta referred to the “show” Trump and his team put on every day as “sh—y.”
“We have to teach Americans, teach people to be more media-literate. What Donald Trump does is a show,” Lemon said. “Every single day you have to realize from morning until the end, ’til midnight, it’s a show that is produced like a television show. Every single day.”
“A pretty sh—y one, but yes,” Acosta replied, to laughter from the audience.