Jim Acosta: ‘Having the President Whip People Up at Rally After Rally Is the Most Depressing Thing I’ve Seen as a Journalist’

CNN’s Jim Acosta describes what it’s like covering President Trump’s rallies, and how it’s the most depressing part of his job as a journalist.

In an afternoon session at the Citizen CNN event, CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta, New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman and SiriusXM’s chief Washington correspondent Olivier Knox (president of the White House Correspondents’ Association) sat down with The Situation Room anchor Wolf Blitzer for a discussion about covering President Trump.

It has been well established at this point in time that Acosta is the least liked reporter among those in the Trump administration and his most passionate supporters. There’s no love lost on Acosta’s side either, who referred to the president as “a deceptive, dishonest person … the original birther in chief” during today’s discussion.

“I think he goes after the press—and this is what I’ve been told time and again—as sort of an ‘act’ … I’ve been told by so many people that this is an act and he’s just doing his reality TV shtick, and instead of ‘you’re fired,’ it’s ‘you’re fake news,’” said Acosta.

The thing that people don’t get is that this is an act,” he continued. “They think this is deadly serious and so they take up the cause and they come after us.”

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