Jim Acosta: Trump 'Soiled' WH Rose Garden With 'Rally' Disguised as Press Conference
CNN anchor blasts president following speech
© press
CNN's Jim Acosta accused President Donald Trump of using his speech at the White House Rose Garden as a campaign rally.
Acosta tweeted after the conference:
"Trump soiled the WH Rose Garden with that performance."
"Presidents do not use the Rose Garden in that kind of naked political fashion," he continued.
Trump soiled the WH Rose Garden with that performance. Presidents do not use the Rose Garden in that kind of naked political fashion. That was not a press conference, as the WH described it. It was a campaign rally disguised as a press conference. It was a bait and switch.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) July 14, 2020
"That was not a press conference, as the WH described it," Acosta added.
"It was a campaign rally disguised as a press conference. It was a bait and switch."
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Trump held his conference from the Rose Garden on Tuesday, where he addressed plans to punish China over its recent national security laws, which threaten the freedom of people in Hong Kong.
The President also took aim at presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden on his campaign promises and foreign policies from when he was Vice President.
“Joe Biden and President Obama freely allowed China to pillage our factories, plunder our communities, and steal our most precious secrets,” Trump said.
Acosta then accused Trump of turning "the Rose Garden into a campaign rally."
"I’ve been here covering the White House for almost eight years. I’ve never seen a president turn the Rose Garden into a campaign rally in the way that President Trump did over the last — more than an hour," Acosta said.
"This was obviously the campaign rally he wanted to have in New Hampshire that his campaign wasn’t able to have last weekend," Acosta added.
WATCH:
.@Acosta: "I've never seen a president turn the Rose Garden into a campaign rally in the way that [@realDonaldTrump] did over the last more than an hour.
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) July 14, 2020
This was obviously the campaign rally he wanted to have in [NH]... The myths, the lies, the stretching of the truth." pic.twitter.com/QMZ1BFugj8
"He instead decided to have it here in the Rose Garden," he said.
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"And the press assembles here in the Rose Garden; we expect there to be a number of questions asked of the president," he added.
"There were only three or four people called on before he raced out of here. He spent much of the time, the bulk of the time that he had here for this event, attacking Joe Biden, trying to rewrite history, and essentially create a fairy tale of his own handling of the coronavirus when, in fact, it's been a gross mishandling of this pandemic."
In May, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany blasted Acosta after he asked why it took Trump 13 hours to tweet about the US reaching 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus.
“We hit 100,000 yesterday evening, so 13 hours for him to recognize that and tweet about it,” Acosta said at the time.
“As I noted, he lowered the flags to half-staff,” McEnany replied.
“The president has said one death is too many. He takes this very seriously.”
