Jim Acosta Rips DeSantis in Debate With Republican CNN Analyst: ‘This Is Not Owning The Libs, This Is Hurting The Kids’

CNN anchor Jim Acosta told Republican CNN analyst Alice Stewart that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is “not owning the libs,” he’s “hurting the kids” with his Martha’s Vineyard stunt.

On Saturday afternoon’s edition of CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta, Acosta was joined by Stewart and Democratic CNN analyst Maria Cardona to discuss DeSantis flying desperate migrants to the Massachusetts town, as well as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott‘s similar stunt with buses to VP Kamala Harris‘s residence.

Cardona pointed out that these migrants have the legal right to seek asylum, while Stewart tried to compare DeSantis’s actions with the Biden administration’s process. That’s when Acosta objected:

MARIA CARDONA: These are the most vulnerable people that exist in our society. They are not here illegally, by the way. We have a law in this country that says if you are afraid for your life, you can come into this country and they are coming through legal ports of entry. They are not sneaking in. They are presenting themselves to Border Patrol, as is the process under the law, and they are seeking asylum. So these governors are putrid, corrupt, vile. I think they’re criminal as well. And they are treating these migrants like trash, like second-class citizens. And they are saying to them, we hate you, we don’t want you. And I believe that this is a huge message to all Latino voters in this country, to all immigrant voters in this country. Watch out, today it’s these migrants. Tomorrow it’s going to be you.

JIM ACOSTA: What do you think Alice? Watch out? Should Republicans watch out over this?

ALICE STEWART: I think Democrats need to finally watch out and acknowledge there is a crisis at the border and do what we can to secure the border and enforce the existing immigration laws. Look, Customs and Border Patrol numbers show that nearly 70% of these people are economic migrants, so they don’t qualify, and don’t, are not classified as seeking asylum for reasons that many in the Northern Triangle.

MARIA CARDONA: They have the right to ask for it. And that’s what they’re doing now. Then they’re going to be processed. And if that’s the case, Alice, if they are, then when they have their court dates and they and they make that assumption or they make that claim that, no, you are not going to be let in here because you’re not. And as an aside, leave per the law, then they will be removed. But that process is something that they deserve as human beings coming to this country to seek asylum. And these governors are cheating them out of that process.

ALICE STEWART: They will still have the opportunity to do so. But the bottom line here is that these border states and border towns should not be subjected to the undue burden of this. And we need, I remind you, President Biden and the the Biden administration has flown people under cover of darkness to New York State and elsewhere across this country under similar circumstances.

JIM ACOSTA: But there’s a plan in place, you know, when they put them on the plane and they land in a different jurisdiction, different state, different town, different city. The people on the other end know that they’re coming. This is just dumping people in the, you know, on Martha’s Vineyard or in Washington, D.C., in front of the vice president’s place to own the libs, this is not owning the libs. This is hurting the kids.

Watch the full segment above via CNN.