CNN’s Acosta reacts to Huckabee Sanders gubernatorial bid: ‘This campaign is going to be gaslit’

CNN anchor Jim Acosta on Monday blasted former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for attacking the media as she announced her intention to run for governor of Arkansas.

“I took on the media, the radical left and their cancel culture, and I won,” Sanders said in a video announcing the launch of her campaign. “As governor, I will be your voice and never let them silence you.” 

Acosta responded to her assertion in a tweet.

“Cancel culture? She won? Sarah tried to ban me from the WH (using a doctored video) and lost in federal court. The Trump appointed federal judge wasn’t buying her lies,” he said. “This campaign is going to be gaslit.”

Cancel culture? She won? Sarah tried to ban me from the WH (using a doctored video) and lost in federal court. The Trump appointed federal judge wasn’t buying her lies. This campaign is going to be gaslit. https://t.co/Rw4YtAma1U

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 25, 2021

Acosta served as CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent during Sanders’s more than two years as former President Trump’s press secretary, sparring with her and top aides often during media briefings.

After a particularly combative exchange between Trump and Acosta in 2018, Sanders revoked Acosta’s press credential. The network sued on First Amendment grounds and Acosta’s press badge was restored a few weeks later.

Sanders left the White House in 2019 and CNN announced earlier this month Acosta would be shifted away from White House duty to a new role behind the anchor desk.

Sanders, whose father Mike Huckabee previously served as governor of Arkansas, said her campaign will mirror the agenda of her former boss in the White House.

“My opponents will do everything in their power to destroy me,” she said. “But I will not apologize for who I am or who I am fighting for … I will not bow down to the radical left. Not now. Not ever.”

Acosta, in a book published in 2019, accused Trump and his top aides of injecting dangerous anti-media sentiment into the national conversation about politics.