CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta is concerned President Donald Trump’s frequent criticism of the news media will lead to a journalist getting physically attacked by one of the president’s supporters.
His comments came during a video interview with Variety, alongside White House correspondents April Ryan of the American Urban Radio Networks and Ashley Parker of the Washington Post.
Trump has regularly singled out CNN and other media outlets as being "fake news."
"But the problem is that people around the country don’t know it’s an act," Acosta said. "They’re not in on the act. And they take what he says very seriously and they take attacks from Sean Spicer and Sarah Sanders and what they do to us on a daily basis very seriously."
Referring to some Trump supporters, Acosta said: “They don’t have all their faculties. In some cases, their elevator might not hit all floors.”
“My concern is that a journalist is going to be hurt one of these days. Somebody is going to get hurt. And, at that point, the White House, the president of the United States, they are going to have to take a hard look in the mirror and ask themselves whether or not they played a role in this…”
Trump on Friday had blasted the "fake news media," noting his high poll number despite bad stories in the press.
And he added: “The American public is wise to the phony (and) dishonest press.”