RUSH: We’ll get to the CNN lawsuit of the White House. They’re suing a lot of people. CNN is suing Trump and Sarah Sanders and the Secret Service and the young White House employee trying to take the microphone away from Acosta who would not surrender it.
What CNN wants us to believe is that Jim Acosta’s constitutional right to sit in the White House pressroom and grandstand cannot be denied, that it can’t be taken away no matter what he does. That Jim Acosta has an unalienable right to sit there in the pressroom and harass Donald Trump, because, after all, the Declaration of Independence says right there: All men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty, press passes, and the pursuit of happiness. See, right there. Press passes are in the Declaration. That’s what the CNN people think.
And then there’s the First Amendment. You may think you know what the First Amendment is, but let me read it to you: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of Jim Acosta or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition government for a redress of grievances, including Jim Acosta.
So, see, Acosta here has an open-and-shut case because CNN says he has a constitutional right to be in the White House pressroom. He has a constitutional right to have a microphone. And he has a constitutional right to badger the president of the United States. Somebody tell this to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and she’ll start fist pumping and yelling, “Right on! Right on! Right on!”
Bottom line is this, Jim Acosta has no constitutional right to be admitted to the White House, period. Jim Acosta has no constitutional right to a White House press pass, period. Jim Acosta has no constitutional right to a White House-issued microphone. And Jim Acosta has no constitutional right to ask the president of the United States questions.
Because, you see, the White House is not prohibiting CNN from being in there. CNN is not being denied access. CNN is not being denied the opportunity to ask questions or harass the president. CNN’s got a reporter in there replacing Acosta. There literally are no grounds. There’s no basis for this. Freedom of the press does not extend to individual — the White House is not required to let anybody who wants in there, in there!
The White House issues press passes. The White House makes sure, and it’s up to them who gets in. Freedom of the press — CNN — Jim Acosta could watch television. He could watch the press briefing on TV and report every bit as much as if he were in the room. Jim Acosta is not being denied access to the president making news in the White House pressroom even if he’s not allowed in there. Jim Acosta could talk to any reporter in the White House pressroom when it’s over and have them tell him what happened in there, but he doesn’t even need to do that.
All he has to do is watch the White House feed of the daily press briefing where he has been denied. There’s no case whatsoever. This is simply a way to harass Trump and to keep Acosta and CNN front and center. Jim Acosta doesn’t even ask questions. Jim Acosta is an embarrassment, when you get right down to it. But within the press corps, everybody there is, of course, circling the wagons and supporting him, as though he has a personal constitutional right to be admitted into the White House pressroom with a press pass.
Any time leftists can play the role of aggrieved victim, they do it. That’s as good as it gets, and Jim Acosta has made himself out to be the biggest victim of Trump in the past three or four days. CNN is suing, it’s an absurd suit, and they know it. What CNN’s really doing is resisting. They’re protesting. And they’re doing it under the auspices of a lawsuit. That’s how I see it. And I don’t think there’s any alternative way of looking at this.
Here’s who’s been sued, by the way. Sarah Sanders, White House chief of staff John Kelly, Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, Bill Shine, Secret Service director, Randolph Alles. How would you pronounce that? Alles? They’re included in the suit. The Secret Service officer who yanked Acosta’s pass is also included, although he’s not identified by name.
I think this guy is just a petty, childish baby. I think Jim Acosta is just a first-class A-number-one creep. He is completely and totally unlikable. And it’s obvious what his intentions are. If there ought to be a lawsuit, it ought to be that White House intern — I think she was an intern — suing Acosta.
Maybe I should start trying to go every day, bring in all my rowdy friends. What’s to stop me? If there’s a constitutional right to attend. You see how ridiculous this is? This is frivolous. It’s actually nothing more than harassment.
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