CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta on Tuesday reflected on the barrage of verbal abuse he received from Trump supporters at a rally in South Carolina late Monday, writing in a first-person piece that the experience was like being in a “surreal” David Lynch movie.
“Approximately three hours before Trump took the stage in West Columbia, an elderly woman walked right up to me and ordered me to leave the venue. Her language would likely make her grandkids blush,” Acosta wrote of the woman who screamed at him to “Get the fuck out of here.”
But Acosta added there were “a few more plot twists over the course of the evening.”
“Namely, the selfies. A steady stream of Trump supporters approached me for either autographs on their McMaster signs (sorry, governor) or photos which I am sure they shared on social media,” he wrote, referring to Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who Trump is supporting ahead of a runoff election following McMaster’s failure to secure the GOP’s nomination in the initial primary.
“Truth be told, there were countless other people who came up to me and apologized for the behavior they had also witnessed,” he continued. “A few said they were sorry ‘on behalf of the people of South Carolina.’ No problem, I told them. It’s part of the job.”
The strained relationship Acosta and CNN developed with Trump during the 2016 campaign has extended into the Trump administration, best demonstrated by the president’s frequent dismissals of the network as “fake news.”
Acosta, in particular, has earned a reputation for his antagonistic exchanges with Trump and key officials, including White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and senior policy adviser Stephen Miller.
[Sarah Sanders and Jim Acosta spar after White House ignores CNN at several press briefings]
