Must watch: @CNN's @Acosta says the White House is "stonewalling." Briefings are "basically pointless at this point" https://t.co/j6PsdqhkGI
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 19, 2017
CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta on Monday said White House press secretary Sean Spicer is “just kind of useless” as tensions continue to escalate between the Trump administration and the press corps.
“So the White House press secretary is getting to a point, Brooke, where he’s just kind of useless,” Acosta said during an appearance on “CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin.”
“You know, if he can’t come out and answer the questions and they’re just not going to do this on camera or audio, why are we even having these briefings or these gaggles in the first place?”
Acosta’s comments came just after Spicer held an off-camera press briefing that reporters were not allowed to record.
{mosads}The CNN reporter said he would like to ask Spicer if he is holding conversations with the president about issues like climate change but that such interactions would not be on camera or recorded due to the White House’s “stonewalling.”
“That’s the White House behind me. The White House. And it’s just, it’s bizarre,” Acosta continued.
“I don’t know what world we’re living in right now, Brooke. We’re standing at the White House and they bring us into the briefing room here at the White House and they won’t answer these questions on camera or let us record the audio.”
Acosta also implicitly criticized the media for covering briefings that reporters are not able to record or film.
“I don’t know why everybody is going along with this. It just doesn’t make any sense to me,” he added.
“And it just feels like we’re sort of slowly but surely being dragged into what is a new normal in this country where the president of the United States is allowed to insulate himself from answering hard questions.”
Acosta noted that President Trump has not done a “full blown press conference” since February and said the briefings are “basically pointless” if they are not filmed or recorded.
“This isn’t how we do things in this country but, for whatever reason, we’re all going along with it. I don’t understand why we covered that gaggle today, quite honestly, Brooke.”