CNN’s Acosta says ‘a number of us’ get death threats from Trump supporters

CNN’s Jim Acosta said Sunday that he and numerous other White House correspondents have received death threats from supporters of the president while covering the Trump administration.

“I am not the only reporter who covered this White House who has had death threats,” Acosta said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Sunday. “We can’t be at a place in this country where political reporters, White House correspondents, need bodyguards to cover political campaign events.”

“It is just a pervasive hostility and anti-democratic hostility towards the process that I just hope we never receive the likes of ever again,” he added. “It is just so damaging and destructive for our democracy.”

CNN’s @Acosta says President Trump’s “anti-democratic hostility” toward the press is “so damaging and destructive for our democracy.” pic.twitter.com/lmsBp08ir4

— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) December 27, 2020

Acosta has frequently sparred with both President Trump and White House press secretaries over the president’s attacks on the media. In 2018, the White House suspended Acosta’s press pass after he resisted a White House intern’s attempt to take the microphone from him.

CNN and Acosta sued for the restoration of his credentials, and the District Court for the District of Columbia ordered them returned for 14 days on due process grounds. The network dropped the lawsuit after the White House restored Acosta’s press pass.

Acosta titled his 2019 memoir “The Enemy of the People,” after the president’s frequent epithet against journalists.