CNN’s Jim Acosta stated flatly Sunday “elections” in the U.S. “are fine,” going so far as to claim anyone who thinks otherwise has been watching “too many conspiracy films.”
Such a sentiment — “elections are fine” — coming from Acosta beggars belief for anyone who’s paid even minor attention to CNN’s coverage of Trump’s 2016 win, to say nothing of Republican efforts since 2020 to make elections more secure. (The latter of which CNN has covered pretty consistently as nothing short of apocalyptic for Democracy itself.)
First, let’s look at the full exchange.
Acosta was interviewing former Department of Homeland Security Sec. Chad Wolf when the duo began sparring over election integrity.
“Our elections are fine,” Acosta insisted.
“There is fraud in our election system,” Wolf responded. “If people don’t acknowledge that, that becomes part of the problem.”
“You are the former acting secretary of homeland security and you are spreading doubt and fear about our election process.”
“These are facts,” Wolf responded before Acosta said “no, these are alternative facts.”
Acosta: “Our elections are fine.”
Wolf: “There is fraud in our election system.”
Acosta: “You are spreading doubt and fear about our election process.”
Wolf: “There has been fraud, illegalities and Zuckerbucks.”
Acosta: “You’ve watched one too many conspiracy films.” pic.twitter.com/DMPDOSxyV5
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 21, 2022
Acosta then acknowledged that of course there are some instances of fraud but President Joe Biden won fair and square. Acosta then cited former Attorney General Bill Barr saying it’s time to accept the election results and “move on.”
Acosta accused Wolf of “sowing the seeds of doubt” about American democracy by questioning the 2020 election.
“There has been fraud, illegalities… and Zuckerbucks,” Wolf shot back.
“You’ve watched one too many conspiracy films,” Acosta claimed.
Setting aside MSNBC, particularly Rachel Maddow, no other network blared the rigged election horn louder than CNN in the wake of Trump’s electoral upset of Hillary Clinton.
Special counsel Robert Mueller did not find conclusive evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, thus under-delivering on two years of utterly hysterical media speculation.
Nonetheless, several CNN anchors and reports pushed the Russian collusion theory, or as Acosta would put it, a “conspiracy film.” (RELATED: ‘CNN Pushed The Russian Collusion Hoax’: Student Confronts Brian Stelter During Conference)
CNN’s Don Lemon said Trump’s defense of no collusion with Russia is “false” and that Mueller’s report didn’t actually exonerate the former president.
Former CNN host Chris Cuomo defended the network after Republicans claimed CNN was putting “out the wrong facts” about the Russian collusion hoax.
“There’s 100 percent behavior by people around the president that qualifies as collusion,” Cuomo argued. “Collusion is not a crime, it’s a behavior.”
“But collusion with Russia didn’t exist,” Republican Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy responded.
“That’s not true,” Cuomo responded. “Mueller says he couldn’t make a criminal case that any of those people helped the Russians interfere. It’s one issue.”
CNN contributor Larry Noble published an opinion piece in 2019 arguing the Trump campaign did not rule “out inviting help from a foreign government.”
But it didn’t stop with the Trump-Russia collusion aspect.
CNN relentlessly covered the story about Russian interference at face value. But does Acosta know that? Does he know his very own outlet covered a story for five whole years about elections being potentially unsafe and susceptible? You know, the opposite of “fine?”
So here’s the thing: elections are only “fine” if they don’t involve allegations of Russian interference. Otherwise, they’re the networks’ go-to story.