Reporters are entitled to ask anything they like of the president. He’s also entitled to ignore their questions. There’s give and take.
I mean, it’d be nice if the president answered everything asked of him. But he doesn’t owe it to specific reporters to respond to all their questions, especially during crowded press conferences where time is a limited commodity and others have questions.
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In other words, CNN’s Jim Acosta is not a martyr just because President Trump didn’t allow him to do more of his signature grandstanding during Wednesday’s post-midterm election press conference. I’m not going to defend the president calling Acosta “terrible” or an “enemy of the people.” But I don’t think Trump is wrong when he says Acosta is “rude.”
Acosta is rude, and not so much in the service of finding the truth as in promoting himself. The cable news journalist was doing his usual thing Wednesday, fluffing his feathers on live television and taking his sweet time at the expense of the journalists who had worthwhile questions. That’s undeniably rude.
This isn’t the Acosta Show. Someone may need to tell him that. The idea that the president somehow owed it to Acosta to answer his follow-up questions during Wednesday’s presser, and that his failure to do so represents some sort of attack on the free press, seems a bit absurd:
I’ve written before that Trump’s treatment of the press is often ugly and divisive. I agree his remarks directed at Acosta Wednesday were below the office of the presidency. But Trump’s refusal to indulge Acosta in a lengthy back-and-forth is not the problem here. Trump’s refusal to answer all of Acosta’s questions isn’t some slide toward fascism, especially considering the president already answered some of the cable news journalist’s questions.
The media have the right to ask any question they want of the president. He also has the right to move on to different questions if he so feels. I understand that we do this thing every week where we all cry “fascism!” when the president is rude or demeaning toward journalists, but let’s not hang our hats on the fact the president didn’t indulge Acosta’s never ending pursuit of the limelight.
