CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta is defending his decision to shout questions at Kim Jong Un during this week’s historic summit between the U.S. and North Korea in Singapore.
WATCH:
Acosta faced near-universal backlash after shouting questions at President Trump and Kim Jong Un while the two leaders were walking past reporters, and then again when they were signing an agreement at the end of the summit. Acosta repeatedly asked Kim Jong Un if he was going to give up his nuclear weapons to strike a deal with Trump. (RELATED: CNN’s Acosta Actually Shouts Good Question At Kim Jong Un)
The reporter defended his question on CNN Wednesday morning, asserting that he couldn’t think of a better question to ask a dictator.
“I mean, to me, you know, I couldn’t think of anything else to ask North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un but whether he’s going to give up his nuclear weapons. Wasn’t that the entire point of this summit?” Acosta said. “There is a dictator right in front of you who has nuclear weapons. Why on Earth would you not ask that question?”
“I really thought it was a golden opportunity for a reporter to ask a dictator really the most important question of the moment,” he ranted, “and that is, are you going to give up these weapons that threaten much of the world. He’s threatened to vaporize parts of the United States. My goodness, I could not have thought of anything else better to ask at that moment than that question.”