JIM ACOSTA: We've been talking about -- before my question, the Second Amendment and this issue of bump stocks that you were just talking about, so I asked Sarah Sanders the question, “Does the president -- does he value the First Amendment as much as he values the Second Amendment?,” because he did put out that tweet earlier this morning, suggesting that the Senate Intelligence Committee investigate news outlets, on the hunt for “fake news,” as the president likes to call it.
And, you know, I think what Sarah Sanders did at that point was sort of use that as an opportunity to tout some of the news that they feel like we don't talk about enough, which is that the economy is doing well, the stock market is doing well, and so on. But I did try to ask a followup question, which was very simply, “Should Congress investigate news outlets?” And it sounded to me like she said no, but then she did call on a -- Noah, right after me, another reporter in the room named Noah.
So, we didn't really get a clear answer on that, so it took one of our other colleagues later on in the briefing to sort of follow up on that. And I think Sarah Sanders sort of answered the question where she said “I don't think that's what we're talking about here,” something along those lines, but not really definitively answering this question, not definitively closing the door on this.
And we should just make it very clear. If Congress were to start investigating news outlets, Brooke, we are then something less than the United States of America. That is just an appalling suggestion to come from the President of the United States.
And Sarah was saying, you know, well, “reporters shouldn't engage in opinions” and so on. That, I guess, in her mind amounts to some sort of fake news, but I don't think it's really an outlandish opinion to say that Congress should not be investigating news outlets. Not in this country, Brooke.
