The View Clashes Over Jim Acosta, White House Standoff: ‘The Country Should Be Ashamed’

The View held a rousing conversation on Thursday about the White House’s decision to yank Jim Acosta‘s press credentials after his blow-up with President Donald Trump.

Whoopi Goldberg started things off by addressing the claims among conservatives that Acosta roughhoused a White House aide who tried to take his mic away as he peppered Trump with questions at Wednesday’s news conference.

Abby Huntsman said people will see what they want to see because of the polarized political landscape. But overall, “the country should be ashamed watching that.” When Goldberg pressed her for her take on whether Acosta’s action constituted assault, Hunstman said thatt, in her opinion, it did not.

From there, Huntsman continued to lambast both sides by saying Trump “doesn’t live in a fact-based world,” while reporters allow themselves to become the story too often.

“Watching it yesterday, I was frustrated,” Huntsman said. “I saw it from both ends and I was mad. It’s embarrassing for our country.”

Meghan McCain eventually got in by comparing and contrasting the incident with the 2016 confrontation between Corey Lewandowski and then-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. McCain agreed that Acosta didn’t commit assault against the White House staffer, but criticized his “grandstanding” and said it was wholly inappropriate for him to push her arm away.

McCain got pushback from her colleagues — especially when Sunny Hostin defended Acosta by saying the White House’s aide “assaulted” the CNN reporter by trying to snatch his mic. That spiraled into an argument about whether Hostin was blaming the woman in this scenario — even though Hostin insisted she wasn’t and was only explaining how the law works.

Hostin tried to move the conversation forward by saying it was “despicable” for Sarah Huckabee Sanders to implicitly try and frame Acosta for assault, though the discussion continued to gravitate around his conduct as a journalist.

Watch above, via ABC.

[Image via screengrab]

— —

>> Follow Ken Meyer (@KenMeyer91) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet Newsletter
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!