CNN's Jim Acosta Reports That Incoming Press Secretary Spicer Threatened To Throw Him Out Of Trump Press Conference

After CNN Broke Trump-Russia Story, Trump Attacked CNN And Acosta During Press Conference

From the January 11 edition of CNN's Inside Politics:

Video file

WOLF BLITZER (HOST): I want to go to Jim Acosta, our White House correspondent, who is inside Trump Tower. He was at the news conference. Jim, I know you very assertively tried to get a question in. [President-elect Donald Trump] pointed at you and said he didn't want to take your question, he said “fake news.” Tell us what it was like for you when you saw what was going on.

JIM ACOSTA: Well, Wolf, at the beginning of that news conference Donald Trump indicated that he was not going to call on me or call on CNN. He sort of pointed at me at one point and then waved his hand as if, “you're not going to get a question.” And then as the news conference went on, as you heard, he was attacking this news organization repeatedly, and I felt it was only fair that if our news organization is going to be attacked, that we get a chance to ask a follow up question about what Donald Trump was talking about. And fortunately my colleague, Cecilia Vega over at ABC, did ask a question that I was going to ask, which is, “Did Donald Trump have any contacts who were in contact with the Russians in the context of this campaign?” She actually did not get an answer on that question, I don't know if you noticed that at the podium. But as he was going to the elevators, we were all asking him again to answer that question and he said no, that nobody associated with him or his campaign was in contact with any of the Russians during the context of that campaign. So I do want to pass along that little bit of news, because he did not answer that question formally during that news conference. 

I should also tell you that at one point during this news conference -- just in the interest of full disclosure and so everbody knows what’s going on and what was happening in the room -- after I asked, and I guess you might say demanded that we have a question, Sean Spicer, the incoming press secretary, did say to me that if I were to do that again, I was going to be thrown out of this press conference. Of course, Wolf, I had to persist there and try to get that question asked, but in the end, that question was asked.

Related:

Huffington Post: Donald Trump Won’t Kick Out The Press, Says Press Secretary Contender

Previously:

Veteran Journalist Carl Bernstein: Intel Chiefs Presented Trump With Claims Of Russian Efforts To Compromise Him

The Guide To Donald Trump's War On The Press (So Far)