A robust stream of outrage now meets any media coverage of former President Donald Trump, who despite being disgraced by the events of January 6 and banned from most social media platforms, still commands vast influence over the Republican Party. The argument from the liberals driving that outrage is that Trump and his movement should be ignored. Jim Acosta, perhaps Trump’s most famous media antagonist during his time in office, disagrees.
“We ignore Trump and Trumpism at our peril,” Acosta, now the anchor of his own CNN show, told me on this week’s episode of The Interview podcast.
Earlier this year, CNN announced that Acosta, who covered presidential administrations for eight years, most recently as the network’s chief White House correspondent, would be leaving the beat to anchor a weekend show.
Now Acosta hosts five hours of programming on CNN, on top of a gig as the network’s chief domestic correspondent, which will involve on-the-ground reporting across the country.
“I certainly see myself as somebody who’s not just anchoring the
While his days of confronting the former president at the White House are behind him, Acosta has continued to cover Trump — and the aggrieved movement he built — from an anchor’s chair in CNN’s Washington D.C. bureau.
“I sure as hell wish I could have moved on like the rest of America after he lost and left the White House and went into exile. But it is still here. He is still here. Trumpism is still here. And we have to cover it,” Acosta said.
Major media ignoring Trump, Acosta argued, would not make the former president disappear, but merely allow for his rhetoric to go unchallenged.
“He goes on Fox. He goes on OAN, he goes on Newsmax, he goes on talk radio with these propagandists and apologists and he says this stuff and is not fact checked. Are we supposed to yield the entire media spectrum to these lunatics? No, I don’t think so. I think you have to have that pushback,” Acosta said.
“I think we would be derelict in our duty as journalists to just completely stick our heads in the sand,” he added.
Acosta also weighed in on the debate over whether cable news hosts should interview Republican lawmakers who encouraged Trump’s election
“I think they have to be challenged on their viewpoints,” Acosta said. “We can’t just get into a situation where the red team is on Fox and the blue team is on CNN and MSNBC or the other mainstream news outlets.”
Acosta noted that “Trumpists are afraid to come on CNN,” pointing out that he has invited Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley on his show, to no avail.
“I think they need to be interviewed. I think they need to be questioned,” he said.
We also spoke about his book, The Enemy of the People, threats against the media, and the cable news competition. Download the full episode now, and subscribe to The Interview on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.