Videos of the Day: White House Responds to CNN Lawsuit Over Jim Acosta Ban

Epoch Newsroom
11/13/2018
Updated:
11/17/2018
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The White House has responded to a lawsuit CNN filed against President Donald Trump and five other individuals who work at the White House over the suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s White House security pass. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders decried the lawsuit as grandstanding by CNN and said the administration will mount a legal defense.

In a post-midterm press conference on Nov. 7, Acosta refused to give up a microphone after a confrontational exchange with Trump over his definition of the word “invasion,” claiming Trump “demonized immigrants” by drawing attention to the thousands of Central Americans who are moving through Mexico in hopes of entering the United States and claiming asylum.

After the sequence, during which Trump responded four times to Acosta, the CNN correspondent refused to give up a microphone, violating protocol. The general protocol is that reporters ask one question and a follow-up.

The third time a female White House intern attempted to take the mic to give it to another reporter, Acosta blocked her arm. CNN later falsely claimed that Acosta did not touch the intern, despite ample video evidence that he did. The network repeated that claim in the lawsuit.

Eventually, Acosta relinquished the microphone.

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California’s Largest Wildfire Becomes Deadliest as Death Toll Climbs

The raging blaze in Northern California claimed the lives of at least 44 people, becoming the deadliest wildfire in state history.

With more than 200 people still missing on Nov. 13, authorities fear the death toll may climb as search teams prepare to sift through the charred wreckage of Paradise, California, the town where most of the death and destruction took place.

The small town with a population of 27,000 people was virtually wiped off the map overnight on Nov. 8, hours after the fire started.

Search teams found the bodies of 13 more victims on Nov. 12, bringing the Camp Fire death toll to 42, authorities said. Two more people died in the separate Woolsey Fire near Southern California’s Malibu coast, west of Los Angeles.

The death toll makes the Camp Fire the deadliest blaze in California history, surpassing the grim record attributed to the Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles in 1933, which killed 29 people.

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Martha McSally Concedes to Kyrsten Sinema in US Senate Race

GOP Rep. Martha McSally has conceded Arizona’s Senate race to Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat, making the announcement on Twitter.

“I just called Kyrsten Sinema and congratulated her on becoming Arizona’s first female senator after a hard-fought battle,” she said in a video on Nov. 12. “I wish her all success as she represents Arizona in the Senate.”

Sinema is the state’s first Democrat elected to the Senate in 30 years since former Sen. Dennis DeConcini retired in 1995.

Sinema had 1,097,321 votes, or 49.68 percent, and McSally had 1,059,124 votes, or 47.96 percent, NBC News reported Monday.

Over the weekend, Sinema’s lead expanded by more than 32,000 votes after mail-in ballots were counted.

In a statement on Facebook on Monday, Sinema said she will work in government to “find common ground.”

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Migrant Caravan Appears to be Headed to Tijuana, Then California

The main migrant caravan appears to be headed to Tijuana in hopes of crossing into the United States, a Mexican official and American congressman said.

The main caravan, which consists of some 6,000 people according to Mexican authorities in Queretaro, departed from Mexico City on Nov. 9.

Nashieli Ramirez, director of Mexico’s Human Rights Commission, said that the caravan is heading to Tijuana through Queretaro, Guadalajara, Culiacan, and Hermosillo.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who sits on the House Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security subcommittee, following briefings with the Department of Homeland Security on Nov. 9, said that he also thinks the caravan will head to California.

“The caravan with over 6,000 migrants has departed Mexico City en route to Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. This caravan will likely follow the Viacrucis caravan that made its way to the California border in April 2018,” Cuellar said in a statement.
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More US Kids Get Paralyzing Illness, Cause Is Still Unknown

More children have been diagnosed with a mysterious paralyzing illness in recent weeks, and U.S. health officials said on Nov. 13, that they still aren’t sure what’s causing it.

This year’s count could surpass the tallies seen in similar outbreaks in 2014 and 2016, officials said. Fortunately, the disease remains rare: This year, there have been 90 cases spread among 27 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

It’s not clear what’s causing some children to lose the ability to move their face, neck, back, arms or legs. The symptoms tend to occur about a week after the children had a fever and respiratory illness.

Health officials call the condition acute flaccid myelitis. No one has died from it this year, but CDC officials say at least half the patients do not recover from the paralysis and some have serious complications.