President Donald Trump tore into CNN's Jim Acosta during a Wednesday afternoon press conference, disagreeing with him on immigration and lambasting the network's ratings, setting the stage for a contentious meeting with the media that included the president telling several reporters to "sit down" and wait their turns to ask questions.
Their argument began after Acosta told Trump he wanted to "challenge" him on one of the statements he'd made about an immigrant caravan heading through Mexico, and eventually escalated to Trump moving away from his podium after telling Acosta to sit down.
"You are a rude, terrible person," Trump told him at one point. "You should not be working for CNN. Go ahead. You are a very rude person, the way that you treat Sarah Huckabee Sanders is horrible. The way that you treat other people is horrible. You should not treat people that way."
Trump also rejected a question about if he's demonized immigrants.
"No, I want them to come into the country," said Trump. "They have to come in legally, through a process. I want it to be a process, and I want people to come in. You know, why we need the people? Because we have hundreds of companies moving in."
He also defended a campaign ad showing migrants climbing over walls, telling Acosta, "they were not actors. It is true. Do you think that they were actors?"
"They are hundreds of miles away," Acosta told Trump. "That is not an invasion."
"Honestly, I think that you should let me run the country," Trump told him. "You run CNN. And if you did it well, your ratings will be much higher."
At that point, Trump told Acosta "that is enough," and an aide at the conference attempted to get Acosta to sit down. But the reporter attempted to ask him about the ongoing Russia investigation.
"I am not concerned about anything with the Russian investigation, because it is a hoax," said Trump. "That is enough, put down the mic."
Then, moving away from the podium, Trump added to Acosta that CNN should be "ashamed of themselves" for employing him.