As the father of five, President Donald Trump knows how to deal with children. So when CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta repeatedly spoke over him at the Oval Office on Thursday, he seemingly knew exactly how to respond.
The fact is that, when dealing with children, parents sometimes resort to issuing short, simple and direct verbal instructions like “STOP,” “BEHAVE,” “GO TO BED,” “CLEAN YOUR ROOM,” “EAT YOUR VEGETABLES” or “BE QUIET.”
And that was the same strategy the president used on Acosta, a man who’s repeatedly been admonished these past few years for his perennially “childish” behavior.
Watch:
.@realDonaldTrump tells @CNN‘s @Acosta to be “quiet” pic.twitter.com/3LCmzv96Qr
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 16, 2020
“Quiet!” the president stated near the end of the clip.
He’d been trying to explain to the media about how he barely knows Lev Parnas, the indicted and highly unscrupulous former associate of Rudy Giuliani who’s become a “Resistance” hero by making extremely suspect claims about him.
“I meet thousands and thousands of people,” the president had been saying. “As president, I take thousands of pictures. And I do — and I do it openly and I do it gladly. And then, if I have a picture where I’m standing with somebody at a fundraiser — like, I believe I saw a picture with this — this man [Parnas]. But I don’t know him. I had never had a conversation that I remember with him.”
“So when he said [acting White House Chief of Staff Mick] Mulvaney knew about this …,” Acosta then cut in.
“Let me just tell you: You just have to take a look at the polls,” the president tried to continue speaking.
“… that Bolton knew about this,” Acosta then cut in again.
“Quiet!” the president then commanded.
The CNN correspondent obediently complied, thus finally allowing the president to complete his statement.
“You just have to take a look at the pictures,” Trump said. “You just have to take a look at the polls. You see I don’t need anybody’s help. We’re doing phenomenally well. The economy is the best it’s ever been in — we have never had an economy like this in history. We just made the two best trade deals in the history of our country. We are doing well.”
A longer clip below demonstrates how Acosta’s behavior started earlier during the briefing. From the get-go, he just kept interrupting the president. And like a parent might do with a child, Trump initially just ignored his misbehavior.
The clip also shows how Acosta’s antics came to a complete halt after the president finally shut him down. Are you taking notes, parents of America!?
Watch:
Following the briefing with reporters, Acosta and other left-wing media personalities took to Twitter to cry about a related matter.
After the briefing ended, they apparently tried to hassle the president with more questions versus doing as they were told and leaving.
This naturally caused one White House official to grow angry and begin scolding them like a parent might scold a misbehaving child.
Watch:
As the footage above went viral, members of the “Resistance” rushed to their keyboards to complain. Chief among them was Walter Shaub, the discredited former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
In early 2017, the then-Obama holdover was blasted by a bipartisan congressional team for his glaring attacks on America’s then-newly inaugurated president.
“Lawmakers from both parties on Monday admonished a federal ethics official who sent a series of tweets commenting on President Donald Trump’s potential conflicts of interest,” the Associated Press reported at the time.
“Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said the tweets by Walter Shaub Jr., director of the Office of Government Ethics, were inappropriate and could compromise the agency’s objectivity.”
He resigned from office six months later but popped back into the spotlight Thursday to complain about the unnamed White House official’s scolding:
This shouting reporters down feels like something from another country. It’s an unseemly display of disdain for the public they are supposed to serve. I wonder if Trump has any sense that it also makes them look frantic to prevent him from saying something foolish. https://t.co/9ucTVbauQS
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 16, 2020
The tweet above was eventually retweeted by Acosta.
It’s not clear whether Shaub or Acosta have “any sense” of what genuine attacks on press freedoms look and sound like.
Nor is it clear they realize that they do not represent “the public.” In fact, polls have repeatedly shown that a majority of the actual public view them — the demonstrably anti-Trump establishment media — with great disdain.
And judging by the views expressed on social media, they view “childish” media personalities like Acosta with even greater disdain.
Observe:
@Acosta acts like a petulant child, so he shouldn’t be surprised when he is treated like one.
— Wolfie St. James? (@wolfgang_sj) January 16, 2020
The teenagers present during the “Freedom of Prayer in School” were far more mature than @Acosta who acts like my 11 years old interrupting me on the phone… #CNNisTrash
Trump scolds CNN’s Jim Acosta for disruption Oval Office news conference: ‘Quiet’https://t.co/VgmSUzaTCh
— theforgotten son (@forgottenson09) January 17, 2020
I loved it when he asked you to be quiet. Should happen more often because you’re so annoying.
— Maria Puig (@MariPu1954) January 17, 2020
In all fairness, you should be quiet. Consistently wanting to pretend you’re not bias but always looking for your “gotcha” moment.
— Rule of Wrist (@uHateToSeeIt69) January 17, 2020
@Acosta ask a question then interrupts all through the answer. Thats why President Trump told Jim Acosta to be quiet.
Trump is nice, I would kick Acosta out.
— PurpleDog2⭐⭐⭐TextTRUMP88022 (@Dog2Purple) January 16, 2020
I love watching Acosta getting smacked down.
I didn’t know it was him, but he wouldn’t let the President finish a sentence, so he got what he deserved.
— TypsyGypsyDance (@TypsyGypsyDance) January 17, 2020
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