CNN’s Jim Acosta is not a journalist. That’s been thoroughly established over the last several years, from his wild, partisan rantings as a White House correspondent during the Trump era to his profanity-filled tirades on the low-rated weekend show he now anchors. This is a man with serious issues, and those issues have been exacerbated by his obsession with January 6th, and by proxy, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Apparently, the stalwart newsman decided he’d go to Capitol Hill to “get answers” about the now almost seven-month-old incident. You know, because no one has talked about January 6th to this point. We obviously need more “answers.”
Things just get weird from there.
The problem here is obvious. Why is Acosta continuing to stalk Greene, a back-bencher representative he can’t seem to ever stop talking about, to demand answers from her, if he apparently already has them? If he’s so invested in and sure of the idea that Donald Trump is directly responsible for what happened on January 6th, what else is he hoping to learn by asking the same question over and over? Greene, regardless of how any personal opinions about her, doesn’t owe Acosta a repetition of his talking points.
This entire exchange just comes across like a child throwing a tantrum because he doesn’t get what he wants. If Acosta wants to be a journalist, then be a journalist. Ask questions, get answers, and report on those answers — regardless of what you think personally of the person you are interviewing. But as I said, Acosta is not a journalist. Rather, he’s a hack, partisan operative who isn’t even talented enough to mask his biases, thus his demotion to playing roving weekend reporter with a show that gets out-rated by reruns of “Pawn Stars.”
Everything about his interaction with Greene is just odd. The way he approaches her, his inability to accept that she might have different opinions, and his absolute obsession with January 6th in general. It’s like he believes it’s his mission in life to “prove” that Trump caused a few hours of trespassing and vandalism that culminated in a Trump supporter being shot by police.
That will never be proven, though, because it doesn’t match the facts in evidence nor is he applying a standard he holds any Democrat politician to. Has Acosta ever accused Rep. Maxine Waters of causing violence despite the fact that she pretty clearly called for it? No, he hasn’t, because this is an entirely partisan pursuit for him.
When Acosta later went after Rep. Mo Brooks with the same nonsense, he got the reception he truly deserved.
That’s how Greene should have handled him. She should have said “wait, who do you work for?” and then laughed in his face at the idea that she’d answer any questions. Republicans do not owe these people anything. Acosta and the like wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped them in the face, and they certainly aren’t going to report honestly on anything that doesn’t line up directly with their political worldview.
Meanwhile, almost all of America could not care less about this stuff. They are too busy dealing with out-of-control inflation and an economy that has been kneecapped by Democrat power. Continual recriminations involving January 6th are the domain of beltway-dwelling partisans who don’t have to operate in the real world.
Acosta simply can’t let go of the Trump era. It was his entire identity, and obsessing over Greene is just an extension of that. There’s something rather sad about that. It’s long past time for someone to stage an intervention. This man needs help.