Press Secretary Won't Condemn Harassment of CNN Reporter During Rally

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Jim Acosta, CNN chief White House correspondent, is taunted by Trump supporters at a Tampa, Fla., rally where he was attempting to do a stand-up for the network.

Jim Acosta, CNN chief White House correspondent, is taunted by Trump supporters at a Tampa, Fla., rally where he was attempting to do a stand-up for the network.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders refused to condemn or criticize Trump supporters at a rally Tuesday (July 31) who chanted "CNN Sucks" as CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta was trying to do a stand-up for the network.

That came in the daily news conference Wednesday (Aug. 1) with the White House press corps.

Sanders said the administration supports both freedom of the press and of speech, which go hand in hand.

The president Wednesday retweeted, without comment, his son Eric Trump's tweet of a video clip of the crowd taunting Acosta during the Trump rally in Tampa, Fla.

[embed]https://twitter.com/EricTrump/status/1024467314664660992[/embed]

The president has not made any secret of the fact that he shares those supporters' view of the news network, calling it fake news and among the enemies of the people.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.