Tag: CNN

‘Part of the stench’: CNN’s Anderson Cooper skewers Mike Pence for ‘awkwardly chuckling’ at talk of neglected migrant kids

AlterNet logoWhile Presiden Donald Trump has been trying to drum up fears about a crisis driven by waves of immigrants trying to invade the United States, the real crisis is a humanitarian one that forced many asylum seekers from Central America to leave their homes in the first place. And that humanitarian crisis continues on American soil in the camps and detention centers where children and others are being held in horrendous conditions, as many recent reports have documented.

CNN”s Anderson Cooper reflected on the crisis and the administration’s attempts to shift the blame to others on his show Tuesday night.

He noted that, in one powerful piece by the New York Times documenting the unsanitary and unsafe conditions of the migrants are forced to live in, Director of Columbia Law School’s Immigrant Rights Clinic Elora Mukherjee said, “There is a stench.” The children at these facilities were unable to clean themselves, she explained, though Cooper noted that the “stench” is also a metaphor for the administration’s disastrous handling of the situation.

View the complete June 26 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

Trump urges customers to drop AT&T to punish CNN over its coverage of him

President Trump took his long-running attacks against CNN to a new level on Monday by suggesting in tweets that a consumer boycott of its parent company, AT&T, could force “big changes” at the news organization.

“I believe that if people stoped [sic] using or subscribing to AT&T, they would be forced to make big changes at CNN, which is dying in the ratings anyway,” Trump tweeted. “It is so unfair with such bad, Fake News!”

The comment, which Trump tweeted in response to seeing CNN coverage while traveling in London during a European tour, fueled criticisms that the president was using his power inappropriately to intimidate critics.

View the complete June 3 article by Craig Timberg, Taylor Telford and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

CNN’s Tapper stuns White House advisor with video of woman accusing Trump’s Fed nominee of sexual assault

On Sunday, CNN’s Jake Tapper clashed with White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, a strategist known for his partisan cheerleading on the economy. The two of them fought over Herman Cain, the former pizza executive and Tea Party presidential candidate President Donald Trump is tapping for a top position on the Federal Reserve.

“You know you’ll face questions about this,” said Tapper. “Herman Cain dropped out of the 2012 race because of numerous sexual harassment allegations, multiple women. He denies them all. I want you to take a listen to one of the accusers.” He then played a clip of Sharon Bialek, a woman who claimed Cain “reached for my genitals … grabbed my head and pulled it towards his crotch” during a job interview.

“There are at least four women who have allegations like this,” said Tapper. “Again, Cain denies they’re true, but doesn’t this trouble you?”

View the complete April 7 article by Matthew Chapman of Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Judge orders White House to reinstate Acosta’s press credentials

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to reinstate press credentials for Jim Acosta, CNN’s chief White House correspondent.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed to the bench by President Trump, granted CNN’s request to restore the press pass for Acosta, giving him regular access to the White House grounds to cover events and press conferences.

“I want to emphasize the very limited nature of this ruling,” Kelly said Friday in granting the temporary restraining order in favor of CNN.

View the complete November 16 article by Lydia Wheeler on The Hill website here.

White House suspends press pass of CNN’s Jim Acosta after his testy exchange with Trump

A video tweeted by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders of CNN reporter Jim Acosta is seen alongside the original feed aired by C-Span. (Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)

The White House suspended the press credentials of CNN reporter Jim Acosta on Wednesday, hours after President Trump took issue with questions Acosta asked at a news conference.

The move to punish Acosta by removing his access to the White House is believed to be unprecedented. The Trump administration barred another CNN reporter from attending an open media event in July but until now has not gone as far as removing a credential, known as a “hard pass,” which enables a journalist to enter the White House grounds.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders cited Acosta’s brief confrontation with a White House press aide during Trump’s midday news conference as the reason for suspending his press pass “until further notice.”

View the complete November 8 article by Amy B. Wang and Paul Farhi on The Washington Post website here.

Someone is taking Trump’s angry rhetoric very literally

Words matter.

Donald Trump Credit: Win McNamee, Getty Images

In the midst of the 2016 campaign, a bit of punditry was born: Take Trump seriously, not literally. Two years later, Trump has done — or tried to do — everything he literally promised on the campaign trail, and on Wednesday morning, there was more chilling evidence that words matter, and that people listening to the president may be taking him very literally.

On Wednesday morning, the Secret Service announced it had intercepted packages containing “potential explosive devices” addressed to former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in New York and President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. Not long after, the CNN New York offices were evacuated after a suspected explosive device, addressed to former CIA director and MSNBC contributor John Brennan, was found in the mailroom.

Suspicious packages were also being investigated Wednesday afternoon at the Sunrise, Florida office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) — the former chair of the Democratic National Committee — and an office building shared by the San Diego Union-Tribune, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), and several other businesses, in San Diego, California.

View the complete October 24 article by Addy Baird on the ThinkProgress website here.

The Coincidence of Bomb Recipients, Trump and Far-Right Rhetoric

White House ducks questions about president’s win-at-all-costs polarizing approach

People at a Make America Great Again rally in Tampa. Credit: Joe Raedle, Getty Images

ANALYSIS | The recipients of explosive devices sent this week have so far shared a commonality: harsh criticism by President Donald Trump and far-right followers.

But White House officials were in no mood Wednesday to entertain the notion that the president’s descriptions of Democrats as “evil” and news organizations as the “enemy of the people” might have helped lead a bomber to build devices and mail them to Democratic mega-donor George Soros, former President Barack Obama, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and CNN. A building in Miami that houses an office for former Democratic National Committee head Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was also evacuated Wednesday.

Trump’s aides declined to comment beyond a statement from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemning what she called “attempted violent attacks recently made against President Obama, President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, and other public figures.”

View the compete October 24 article by John T. Bennet on the Roll Call website here.

New wave of attack ads shows Democrats on offense, Republicans on defense

Washington (CNN) — The DCCC and the NRCC — each party’s main congressional campaign committee — combined to release more than 20 new ads this week amid the intensifying battle for the House of Representatives, with a range of targets and messages reflecting their opposing strategic priorities in the final month of the midterm elections.

On the Democratic side, the committee is on offense, releasing new attack ads in a slew of races against vulnerable GOP incumbents, and also a key open seat race in New Mexico’s 2nd district. Among those targeted: CO-06, ME-02, VA-10, OH-01, NM-02, NJ-07, IL-13, and KY-06. The DCCC is also going up with their first ads in PA-16, NC-02 and WV-03 this week.

Some of the ads hammer GOP incumbents as out of touch with their constituents, such as the ads against Rep. Steve Chabot (OH-01) — “career politician” — or Rep. Rodney Davis (IL-13) — “being in Congress changes people.” It’s a key message in a range of Democratic pick-up opportunities against vulnerable Republican incumbents, particularly those in districts won by Hillary Clinton in 2016.

View the complete September 29 article by David Wright and Aaron Kessler was posted on the CNN website here. (Good charts)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/cnn-reporter-barred-from-white-house-event-drawing-journalists-protests/2018/07/25/81dd6b5e-9057-11e8-bcd5-9d911c784c38_story.html?utm_term=.2ad4a4e61880&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

The following article by Paul Farhi and Felicia Sonmez was posted on the Washington Post website July 25 2018:

CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins said she was barred on July 25, from an open White House media event after officials objected to her questions. (Melissa Macaya /The Washington Post)

A CNN reporter said she was blocked from an open media event at the White House on Wednesday after officials objected to questions she asked President Trump at an event earlier in the day.

Reporter Kaitlan Collins said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and communications director Bill Shine told her she was banned from a late-afternoon announcement in the Rose Garden involving Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker a few hours after she sought to question Trump during a press-pool “spray” in the Oval Office.

Blocking a credentialed White House reporter from an event open to all members of the media is highly unusual and possibly unprecedented, and it marks another low point in the Trump White House’s highly strained relationship with the news media.

View the complete article here.

Trump Says He’s The ‘Least Racist Person.’ Anderson Cooper Has A Reality Check.

The following article by Ed Mazza was posted on the Huffington Post website January 15, 2018:

The CNN host uses the president’s own words against him.

In response to reports that Donald Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as “shithole” countries in a meeting with lawmakers last week, the president once again claimed he was the “least racist person.” But CNN’s Anderson Cooper wasn’t buying it.

On Monday night, Cooper used Trump’s own words to show the president’s history of racist comments going back long before he even took office.

Check it out in the clip above.