President Donald Trump uttered a remark Sunday “that didn’t get nearly enough attention,” former CNN anchor Jim Acosta flagged on Monday, one that saw “the mask slip in a bombshell moment” that carried with it a troubling implication.
Trump called into NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday to discuss the recent and sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and while the bulk of the discussion centered on the South Carolina Republican, Trump snapped at NBC News’ Kristen Welker when she briefly steered the conversation elsewhere.
Welker asked Trump whether the Strait of Hormuz was open as his administration had claimed earlier that morning, despite Iranian officials declaring it to be “closed” the day before.
“I don’t want to talk about it because I want to honor the life of Lindsey Graham,” Trump said. “So I don’t want to talk about it. I told you that before the call!”
Welker responded by saying “yeah” before pivoting back to Graham, an exchange that Acosta flagged as troubling.
“That sounds an awful lot like there were demands set in exchange for this interview that were consistent with what went down on CNN,” Acosta wrote in an analysis published Monday on his Substack.
“It also seems like even if those demands weren’t explicitly agreed to – although Welker did say ‘Yeah’ – both anchors largely complied with them and got back in line when Trump became displeased.”
Another anchor was hit with scrutiny over their Sunday interview with Trump: CNN’s own Jake Tapper, who was widely mocked Monday for failing to push back on the president as he dictated the direction of their interview. Acosta offered his own critique of his former colleague’s performance.
“The exchange was a bad look,” Acosta said of Tapper’s interview with Trump. “He’s also taking heat for the volumes of insanity he ignored, after spilling gallons of ink calling the widely-known aging of President Biden ‘a cover-up.’”
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