CNN’s chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta reacted to President Donald Trump’s short statement on the Dow Jones Industrial Average going above 30,000 for the first time in history on Tuesday.
Guest-host Nia-Malika Henderson said, “Jim, I have to say, I was all prepared to take notes on what the president had to say. I ended up scribbling 30,000, and the words the stock market is up. What was that presser about?”
Acosta said, “That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen over here at the White House, and I have seen a lot in the last several years. I will tell you, Nia, the president, came in there about 30 seconds. It may have been longer than 30 seconds. He obviously wanted to tout the performance in the Dow this morning down on Wall Street, the Dow hitting 30,000. The president wanted to take credit for that. There was talk on social media, Twitter, people crediting the Biden transition for General Services Administration to begin ascertainment procedures that are now in motion. And there was a lot of chatter on Wall Street that the pop in the Dow was somehow related to the Biden transition team getting going and the appointment of Janet Yellen at the Treasury Department. That probably precipitated the president wanting to take credit for it himself.”
He added, “That was just the strangest thing to see the president come out in the briefing room, we have White House staffers shouting at us to get in our places, he wanted to walk in the room, so he was ready, wanting to walk in the briefing room before we were in our seats. We had White House wranglers and staffers telling us to sit down because the president was about to walk in. He didn’t take questions, as we all know. It is worth noting. He has been in this period of dealing with losing to Joe Biden for the last three weeks now. Still has not taken any questions from reporters. So it is hard to put the cereal back in the box after you have gone cuckoo for cocoa puffs, and I think that is the situation over here. Just the strangest, weirdest thing I have ever seen in the White House briefing room.”
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