An intense debate on whether or not CNN reporter, Jim Acosta, “assaulted” a White House intern during a press conference with President Trump took place on ABC’s morning talk show, “The View.”
CNN’s Jim Acosta, who is now banned from the White House, asked the Commander-In-Chief a tough question on his illogical rhetoric on invading migrant caravans and President Trump became combative.
Initially, the President attempted to evade the question but Acosta pressed the issue, which resulted in insults from Trump.
“You know what Honestly, I think you should let me run the country. You run CNN,” Trump fired back. “If you did it well, your ratings would be much better.”
Never answering the question, Trump moved on to another reporter while a White House intern attempted to snatch the mic from his hand. According to the video, Acosta raised his arm and then held on to the microphone with both hands as the intern continuously tried to remove it form his hands.
The “Hot Topics” portion of “The View” weighed in on the “scandal” because White House press secretary Sarah Sanders accused the reporter of inappropriately touching the young woman.
Whoopi Goldberg began the discussion by asking: “When you look at the clip, is that inappropriate touching We know when someone is accused of assault, that’s a very loaded word. Did that look like assault”
The other hosts, quickly, responded with varying viewpoints.
“In my opinion, no,” said Abby Huntsman. “You have a president that does not live in a fact-based world a lot of the time and his tone was so aggressive, but you also have people in the press core that are constantly aching to make the headlines and to get those soundbites.”
She also admitted that she thought that reporters are “not supposed to be the story” and adding that she was “frustrated” watching the interaction between Acosta and Trump.
Meghan McCain seconded the sentiment but then weighed in on what transpired between Acosta and the intern. She elaborated by saying: “In general, I don’t like when men touch me without permission. If I were handing that and some man went like this, I wouldn’t like it. Is it assault I don’t think it goes to the level of assault. Is it inappropriate — 100 percent.”
Sunny Hostin jumped in to explain the legality of the interaction.
“For me, when I saw that, I mean, I learned very early on that what I saw was battery — not by Jim Acosta, but by the young White House aide,” Hostin said. “When you are holding something, if I may, if you’re holding something and you snatch this from me, this cup is now an extension of me, and that means you’ve battered me, you’ve assaulted me.”
Huntsman reacted to the statement exclaiming: “So you’re blaming the woman in this situation, for doing her job.”
McCain responded sarcastically saying, “So it’s the woman’s fault for doing her job. So that White House intern should be arrested for batter.”
Being a former prosecutor, Hostin simply replied: “I’m telling you what the law is.”
“So we should get her arrested for battery, clearly,” McCain continued. “I’m saying that facetiously, obviously. You better arrest her, I mean, I better go arrest her for battery.”
Goldberg interjected as McCain began to talk over Hostin telling McCain to stop and to allow Hostin to finish because she was the lawyer.
It was obvious that the panel saw the exchange in a very different way. Huntsman finally said, “These are tough conversations.”
Goldberg shut her down, replying: “They’re actually not, because part of me will say this to everybody, I don’t know how long I could be a nice person if I got my face yelled at constantly that I was fake and a liar and a terrible person,” Goldberg countered. “I think I would start to get a little crabby also. I’m not making excuses, but I do wonder how long folks are supposed to be nice and take it. I think that you can’t be surprised if they’re a little crunchy.”
Reader Question: What do you think would have been an appropriate reaction by Acosta when the intern attempted to snatch the mic from his hands
