Trump Says Jim Acosta Video ‘Wasn’t Doctored’

President Donald Trump responded to claims that a video shared by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was doctored.

“It wasn’t doctored... they gave a close-up view,” Trump told reporters on Nov. 9. “Nobody manipulated it,” said Trump. “Give me a break.”

The video they are referring to showed a White House aide trying to take away a microphone from CNN reporter Jim Acosta before he put his hand down on her’s as she was trying to grab it.

He added that the claims of the video doctoring are “just dishonest reporting.“ He added that the shared video is just ”a close-up.”

“That is just dishonest reporting,” he added. “That’s not doctoring,” Trump later said.

“When you say ‘doctored,’ you’re a dishonest guy,” Trump told the reporter on Nov. 9.

Regarding how long Acosta will be suspended, Trump said that “as far as I’m concerned, I haven’t made that decision.”

“But, it could be others, also,” he said.

Acosta, on Twitter, denied Sanders’ comment and said he and CNN “won’t back down” after the ban.

“I think Jim Acosta’s a very unprofessional man,” Trump said on Nov.9, the Daily Caller reported. “He does that with everybody. He gets paid to do that. He gets paid to burst in. He’s a very unprofessional guy. Whether it was me or Ronald Reagan or anybody else, he would have done the same thing.”

Trump added: “I don’t think he’s a smart person, but he’s got a loud voice.”

Sanders said the White House will “stand by our statement” that Acosta made contact with the White House aide. “The question is: Did the reporter make contact or not? The video is clear. He did,” she wrote.

“We stand by our decision to revoke this individual’s hard pass. We will not tolerate the inappropriate behavior,” she wrote on Twitter.

President Donald Trump gets into an exchange with CNN reporter Jim Acosta during a news conference a day after the midterm elections in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on Nov. 7, 2018. (Photo by Al Drago - Pool/Getty Images)

Sanders noted that Trump took 68 questions from 35 different reporters over the lengthy press conference that lasted 90 minutes—the first one he’s held since the midterm elections. Acosta, she added, asked several questions during the press conference.

“The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it’s an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this Administration,” Sanders stated.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told “Fox and Friends” on Nov. 8 “The reporter from NBC was already standing, getting ready to ask his question, and she was just doing her job, which was to reclaim the microphone that belongs to the federal government.”

Conway said Acosta should not have swiped at the White House aide before “grabbing the microphone back.”