CNN's Jim Acosta sang Vice President Joe Biden's praises on Wednesday's Legal View, mere moments after the Democrat announced that he was not running for president: "It was extraordinary political theater to be out here...it was unbelievable to see us all called together at the very last minute to witness what we just saw. But, in many ways, it was a kind of a fitting sign-off for this vice president." Acosta added that "the way that Joe Biden, sort of, wrapped up his time here in Washington...it was quite something to watch."
Jim Acosta
By Matthew Balan | October 15, 2015 | 2:55 PM EDT
On Thursday, CNN's John Berman took aim at a claim by President Obama moments after he announced that thousands of American troops would remain in Afghanistan. Berman highlighted that the President "did make clear he is not a president who has ever supported endless war," but continued that "if Afghanistan, at this point, is not an endless war, I'm not sure what is." Liberal historian Douglas Brinkley seconded the anchor's take: "It kind of is an endless war."
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 23, 2015 | 9:35 AM EDT
During an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Ben Carson scolded members of the media for distorting his views on illegal immigration. Speaking to fill-in host Jim Acosta, the Republican presidential candidate argued that “[a]t some point I hope we have some responsible media which actually focuses on the problem.”
By Brad Wilmouth | June 30, 2015 | 6:38 PM EDT
Tuesday's New Day featured its latest CNN/ORC poll results showing that President Obama's overall approval rating has recently inched up a few points to 50 percent, his highest number in two years, with co-anchor Chris Cuomo touting the results as "the good word" as he introduced correspondent Jim Acosta. For his part, after recounting the finding that President Obama's approval for his handling of race relations had increased to 55 percent, the CNN correspondent oddly cited as good news what should have been viewed as a negative finding that only 20 percent of Americans believe race relations have improved since Obama became President, with 43 percent saying relations have gotten worse.
By Matthew Balan | June 30, 2015 | 4:15 PM EDT
On Tuesday, CNN's Jim Acosta asked President Obama about "what some people are calling 'your best week ever.'" Acosta played up that "you had two Supreme Court decisions supportive of the Affordable Care Act and of gay rights. You also delivered a speech down in Charleston that was pretty warmly received." The correspondent then underlined that 'it seems that you've built up some political capital for the remaining months of your presidency." He asked, "I'm curious, how you want to use it? What hard things do you want to tackle at this point?"
By Ken Shepherd | March 16, 2015 | 8:54 PM EDT
Filing his report from the North Lawn of the White House on Monday's Erin Burnett OutFront, CNN's Jim Acosta uncritically parroted President Obama's falsehood regarding 47 Republican senators' open letter to the government of Iran.
By Curtis Houck | September 24, 2014 | 8:59 PM EDT
During his speech to the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly on Wednesday, President Barack Obama made a striking, unusual and ridiculous comparison between the reign of terror taking place in the Middle East at the hands of the brutal Islamic terrorist group ISIS and the unrest that took place in Ferguson, Missouri last month after the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
As far as the any of the major broadcast networks bringing up this absurd comparison on their evening newcasts, neither ABC, CBS, or NBC gave that portion of the President’s speech any attention or allowed it to see the light of day.
By Matthew Balan | August 11, 2014 | 2:56 PM EDT
CNN's Jim Acosta ran to the Obama administration's defense in a Monday post on Twitter. Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, replied to Acosta's previous Tweet reporting that Vice President Joe Biden "called Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abadi to congratulate him." Fleischer wondered, "Why is Biden making these calls? It's POTUS's [President of the United States] job..."
The journalist complimented the Bush administration alumnus for his "good question," and continued by emphasizing Biden's supposed expertise with the Middle Eastern country: [Twitter post below the jump]
By Brad Wilmouth | June 6, 2014 | 10:15 AM EDT
On Friday's New Day on CNN, correspondent Jim Acosta showed a portion of a pre-recorded interview with Obama administration National Security Advisor Susan Rice in which Acosta pressed her to correct her assertion that former hostage Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl had served "with honor and distinction," in spite of reports that he deserted.
But the Obama advisor declined to find fault with her previous word choice as she dodged by arguing that Bergdahl should be considered "innocent until proven guilty."
Speaking to Rice, the CNN correspondent posed:
By Matthew Balan | April 8, 2014 | 4:16 PM EDT
On Tuesday's New Day, CNN's John King targeted President Obama and his administration for their "textbook case...of do as I say, not as I do" on the issue of equal pay for women. After playing a clip of Press Secretary Jay Carney playing up how the 88 cents on the dollar women in the White House apparently make compared to men is "better than the national average," King quipped, "I guess the coach would say, is that the best you got?"
The journalist also spotlighted two past studies involving the White House and congressional payroll at the time Mr. Obama was serving as a senator from Illinois, and pointed out the bad optics of the situation: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
By Matthew Balan | April 1, 2014 | 4:56 PM EDT
Jim Acosta emulated a P.R. flack for the Obama administration on Tuesday's CNN Newsroom, as he hyped how the White House is "on track to hit seven million signing up" for ObamaCare. Acosta gushed that "if ObamaCare were a patient, this would be a pretty miraculous recovery, when you consider...that disastrous rollout in October and November."
The correspondent later touted the development as "pretty big news over here at the White House. They're reacting with a lot of glee and happiness, I can tell you." Acosta and anchor Carol Costello also credited the President's Internet video with comedian Zach Galifianakis for part of ObamaCare's apparent success: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
By Matthew Balan | February 7, 2014 | 7:50 PM EST
Thursday's CNN Newsroom spotlighted how President Obama "called for promoting religious freedom – quote, 'a key part of U.S. foreign policy," at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, but glossed over his administration's controversial birth control/abortifacient mandate under ObamaCare, which is being challenged in an ongoing Supreme Court case. The cable network still stood out, however, as none of the Big Three networks aired reports on Obama's speech.
John King zeroed in on the President's "very moving tribute to the Americans held in prison in North Korea and in Iran because of their faith-based beliefs." Instead of mentioning the HHS mandate, anchor Carol Costello played up the Democrat's encounter with a conservative politician as a supposed glimmer of hope for bipartisanship: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]