Media company CNN on Tuesday (November 13) filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the revocation of press credentials of its White House correspondent Jim Acosta who was involved in a heated altercation with US President Donald Trump last week.
During a press conference last week, Trump was involved in a heated argument when Acosta questioned him about the migrant caravan travelling through Mexico and the ongoing investigation into the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
Following the altercation, the White House had suspended Acosta’s credentials. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders also accused him of putting his hands on an intern who was trying to take away the microphone from him. She had called his behavior “absolutely unacceptable”.
In a statement, CNN said it has asked the court to immediately restrain the White House and order it to return the pass to Acosta.
Why was Trump angry
Trump was addressing a press conference in Washington, DC, where the US president was to speak on the country’s mid-term elections. Trump’s Republican party managed to keep its majority in the Senate but lost control of the House of Representatives.
The press conference, which initially focused on simple political topics, quickly descended into chaos after Trump was asked about his politics and the controversial issue of Russia meddling in the US’s 2016 presidential election (the same election that put Trump in the White House).
CNN reporter Jim Acosta asked Trump why he had focused on migrants in his campaign leading up to the mid-term elections.
To this, Trump responded, “You should let me run the country. You run CNN and if you did it well, your ratings would be much better.”
Acosta then tried to ask about the status of the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump, however, tried to cut the journalist short before ultimately responding, “CNN should be ashamed of itself having you work for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN. The way you treat [White House spokesperson] Sarah Sanders is horrible. The way you treat other people is horrible. You shouldn’t treat people that way.”