I was watching MSNBC last night and they had someone on who said he wouldn't be surprised if Trump staged the entire thing.
He could have just not picked Acosta to take a question from but it seemed like he wanted to make a scene.
He then also verbally attacked the two black women reporters. He knew that the news about Sessions replacement wouldn't be taken well so, as usual, he tried to put other news out there hoping that the media would talk more about that.
When he took Acosta's press credentials away from him last night, he thought that would do the trick.
Orwellian!!! White House retweets doctored video to depict Jim Acosta as assailant!
Sarah Sanders tonight tweeted this:
We stand by our decision to revoke this individual’s hard pass. We will not tolerate the inappropriate behavior clearly documented in this video. pic.twitter.com/T8X1Ng912y
Sarah Sanders @PressSec We stand by our decision to revoke this individual’s hard pass. We will not tolerate the inappropriate behavior clearly documented in this video.
but the video embedded in her tweet is sped up to make it seem as if Jim Acosta is “karate chopping” the woman’s arm as she reaches for the microphone.
Here’s how it really happened:
Slowed down the @Acosta encounter to show the FOUR times the White House staffer touched HIM... not the other way around. Unclear if she's been suspended. pic.twitter.com/gBhlR2r5P1
Sarah Burris @SarahBurris Slowed down the @Acosta encounter to show the FOUR times the White House staffer touched HIM... not the other way around. Unclear if she's been suspended.
and CNN stands up for itself quite nicely:
Josh Marshall did a good dissection as well:
Josh Marshall @joshtpm Okay, this smear by @PressSec was so awful and I like nerding out on Final Cut so much that I had go full Zapruder here. Look at the "placing his hands on a young woman" she's referring to which is clearly the exact opposite of what she claims. cc: @Acosta
George Orwell himself could not have done any better.