Jim Acosta and company celebrated too early when a judge granted him a temporary injunction to restore his White House hard pass. After initially warning that they may simply revoke Acosta’s press pass again, the White House decided to back down, but only with conditions that make future suspensions highly likely.
In response to the White House confirming they wouldn’t re-revoke Acosta’s press pass, CNN dropped their federal lawsuit against the administration altogether Monday. That night, Bill Shine and Sarah Huckabee Sanders sent Acosta a letter citing his conduct at Trump’s November 7th press conference as the reason his pass was initially revoked. In particular, they cited Acosta asking multiple follow up questions, refusing to give up the mic, and failing “to abide by basic, widely understood practices.”
You can read the letter in full below:
Another suspension for Acosta coming soon?
The letter to Acosta certainly makes it clear that he’ll see his pass suspended again if his behavior doesn’t change, and that’s a disclaimer that could render his restored press pass “restored in name only.” After all, Acosta has broken every single one of the three rules outlined in the letter during press conferences with Trump. Acosta never asks a single question, has never obeyed an order from Trump to stop talking, and during his latest fiasco, refused to give up the mic to a female intern.
When judge Timothy Kelly granted the injunction to give Acosta his press pass back, it wasn’t based on First Amendment grounds, but rather the Fifth Amendment. Kelly made it clear that his ruling was extremely narrow, commenting that, “I want to emphasize the very limited nature of this ruling,” not ruling on whether or not the White House violated CNN or Acosta’s First Amendment rights. Put simply, it’s likely that the White House did have a valid reason to suspend Acosta’s press pass, but didn’t follow the right formal procedure before revoking Acosta’s press pass.
With this letter to Acosta, Trump is sending a message; play by my rules, or you’ll be out ousted again.
CNN noted the caveats in the celebration of their “victory,” but discussed them as if they were rules aiming to increase Trump’s control the narrative during his press conferences, not as if they were opening up a backdoor to justify revoking Acosta’s press pass again.
And here’s Acosta’s reaction to everything:
Thanks to everybody for their support. As I said last Friday… let’s get back to work.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 19, 2018
Ironically, if getting “back to work” means conduct as usual for Acosta, he won’t be back to work for long.
