CNN's Acosta to WaPo: My Trump Criticism Not Partisan

Criticism of President Donald Trump and the administration is not partisan — it is journalism – CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta claimed.

In an interview with The Washington Post posted Sunday, Acosta defended past blasts, including his description of a news conference in Poland as a "fake news conference," and criticism of White House press secretary Sean Spicer as "kind of useless."

"I think I'm just covering a story, honestly," he told the Post in a telephone interview. "When the president of the United States calls the press 'fake news' and 'the enemy of the American people,' I think that's when you have to get tough and ask the hard questions."

"This is not a crusade," he added, the Post reported. "This is not partisan. This is journalism. We're trying to hold them to account."

According to the Post's Paul Farhi, Acosta did not go easy on Trump and Spicer's predecessors either, writing his grilling of Obama press secretary Josh Earnest and former President Barack Obama "was often highlighted in conservative media accounts and in Republican National Committee emails."

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