Appearing on Newsmax’s Spicer & Co. Monday evening, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell called out leftist CNN anchor Jim Acosta for smearing former President Trump as “twisted and evil” figure with “darkness that fills his soul.” In response to that unhinged rhetoric, Bozell explained that Acosta “is just a hound dog for self-aggrandizement.”
“CNN’s Jim Acosta, he called Trump actually just show on this ‘evil’ and ‘twisted’ on his show this weekend,” co-host Lyndsay Keith noted. A soundbite then played of Acosta adding: “Trump is scheduled to hold yet another rally with top GOP lawmakers in Iowa this evening. When you do stand next to him, ask yourself: Can you feel the darkness that fills his soul filling yours too? It feels cold, doesn’t it?”
Keith wondered: “I mean, how can they be objective or call themselves objective when they’re so hostile towards someone?...almost a personal vendetta there against this person.”
Bozell confirmed that was exactly what was going on: “Well, of course there is....Jim Acosta made his name – this guy is out for himself with his career at all times. Everybody knows it.” He then quipped: “If I were a Republican consultant, I would tell my candidate watched Jim Acosta and whatever he does say the opposite when you’re talking in public and you’ll win an election.”
“This guy is just a hound dog for self-aggrandizement. That’s all Jim Acosta is,” Bozell concluded about the notoriously egotistical CNN reporter.
Earlier in the segment, host Sean Spicer highlighted Chuck Todd’s hand-wringing over Trump on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday: “Chuck Todd insinuated that supporters of President Trump were afraid of his grip on the party....There’s this assumption, Brent, that if we just – if he – if we got rid of the spell that he has us under, as opposed to, uh maybe people want to support him.” Spicer observed: “I don’t understand how Republicans still go on that show and consider him – he’s a former Democratic operative – a fair host.”
Bozell pointed to the glaring media double standard when it came to coverage of Trump versus coverage of the disastrous Biden Administration:
You know this, in the four years that Donald Trump was president, 92, 93, 97, one month, 100% negative coverage. All they could do – they ignored all of the good news, it was nothing but negative. Now, the wheels are coming off the Joe Biden administration, so how do they report it? Attacking Trump?
Here is a full transcript of the October 11 segment:
6:24 PM ET
SEAN SPICER: The left-wing media activists were out in full force this weekend. Let’s break down some of the low lights with the President of the Media Research Center Brent Bozell. Brent is also the author of the upcoming book, Stops Along the Way. Brent, I’ve seen parts of it, it looks fabulous, I’m excited to read it.
BRENT BOZELL: Thank you.
SPICER: Welcome back to the show, good to have you.
BOZELL: Sure, sure. Talking about Trump. Um you know what?
SPICER: Brent, let me let me kind of just start this off with on Meet the Press yesterday, I want to show you this. Chuck Todd insinuated that supporters of President Trump were afraid of his grip on the party. I want to play it for you.
CHUCK TODD: There seems to be no power in numbers, everybody’s afraid. If they all join hands, they could read the party of Trump. But they’re not doing it.
SPICER: There’s this assumption, Brent, that if we just – if he – if we got rid of the spell that he has us under, as opposed to, uh maybe people want to support him. But that’s the Chuck Todd mentality. I mean, I don’t understand how Republicans still go on that show and consider him – he’s a former Democratic operative – a fair host.
BOZELL: It’s gonna be very hard for them to put their hands together as a part – about three quarters of Republicans support Donald Trump. They want him to run for president. Whether Chuck Todd likes it or not, the Republican Party likes Donald Trump. But Sean, here’s the interesting thing about that. You know this, in the four years that Donald Trump was president, 92, 93, 97, one month, 100% negative coverage. All they could do – they ignored all of the good news, it was nothing but negative.
Now, the wheels are coming off the Joe Biden administration, so how do they report it? Attacking Trump?
SPICER: Yeah.
LYNDSAY KEITH: You know, Brent, CNN’s Jim Acosta, he called Trump actually just show on this “evil” and “twisted” on his show this weekend, and then he went on to say this, watch.
JIM ACOSTA: Trump is scheduled to hold yet another rally with top GOP lawmakers in Iowa this evening. When you do stand next to him, ask yourself: Can you feel the darkness that fills his soul filling yours too? It feels cold, doesn’t it?
KEITH: Again, Brent. I mean, how can they be objective or call themselves objective when they’re so hostile towards someone? Obviously there is, I feel, almost like almost a personal vendetta there against this person.
BOZELL: Well, of course there is. Of course there is. And look, Jim Acosta made his name – this guy is out for himself with his career at all times. Everybody knows it. If I were a Republican consultant, I would tell my candidate watched Jim Acosta and whatever he does say the opposite when you’re talking in public and you’ll win an election. This guy is just a hound dog for self-aggrandizement. That’s all Jim Acosta is.
SPICER: You know, there was an interview, we played a snippet, from Axios last night that had Marty Walsh. But there was another interview on there where Axios’s reporter Alexia McCammon interviewed the owners of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. And she stumped him with a question that I want to play for you and then discuss afterwards. Let’s play it.
ALEXIA MCCAMMON [AXIOS]: You guys are big proponents of voting rights. Why do you still sell ice cream in Georgia? Texas abortion bans. Why are you still selling there?
BEN COHEN: I don’t know. I mean, I mean, it’s a – it’s an interesting question. I don’t know what – what that would accomplish.
SPICER: So Brent, she was asking him the question because they refused to sell Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in the, uh, the occupied areas of Israel, right? They say that it’s out of this moral – but then she calls him out. So the first question I want to get to you is this seems to really show the hypocrisy of the left, right? That she call him out and says, “Okay, well, if that’s your standard, what about all these other things that you so-called don’t believe in? And here’s the – you know, and so I thought that was an interesting trap.
BOZELL: Yeah this is the far left interviewing the far left and nothing will ever satisfy the far left. No matter what you do, they’re going to find fault with something. Look, I found that question – I find the whole thing obnoxious, that this would be considered a news program. But the premise is what’s even more obnoxious.
SPICER: And that’s – and that’s what I wanted to get to you second to is the idea is the reporter is sitting there saying, “Oh, you know, the premise,” exactly what your point is, “it’s bad in Georgia because of voting rights, in Texas because of abortion.” I’ve said this before on the show, there is nothing that they can point to in Georgia that doesn’t make common sense when it comes to voting, and yet, the reporter, to your point, comes at it with a very biased angle.
BOZELL: Yeah, well, plus, if you were to look at what’s in that bill, what are they supporting? They’re supporting voter identification. These are things that are supported by 80% of the American people. If they were to report what’s in that legislation, they’d be laughed out of town for opposing it.
KEITH: Absolutely.
SPICER: That’s – that’s the key is that they don’t want to discuss the details because having voter ID makes sense and they don’t want to tell people it’s in there, but the media continues to bash and demonize all of these common sense things like the voter laws in Georgia, in Texas, and around the country that make sure that it’s harder to cheat, right, and preserves the thing.
But anyway, it’s just amazing when you actually break it down, how biased the media is. So, Brent congratulations on the new book.
BOZELL: Thanks, Sean.
SPICER: Thanks for being here to break down the media interactions.
BOZELL: Anytime, thank you.
SPICER: You bet.
