CBS WH Correspondent on Acosta Fiasco: When President Says Next, You Pass the Mic (Jose Luis Magana/AP)
By Jason Devaney | Friday, 16 November 2018 12:27 PM
A member of the White House press corps said Friday he is troubled by the fiasco between President Donald Trump and CNN's Jim Acosta, but that he respects the office of the president and knows when it's time to pass the microphone to someone else during a presidential press conference.
CBS White House correspondent Major Garrett was on Larry O'Connor's radio show Friday morning and said Acosta losing his White House press pass after an incident during a recent press conference — a decision that was overturned after the Garrett interview occurred — is troubling.
The situation "makes me deeply uncomfortable as a long-serving and long-standing White House correspondent," Garrett said.
"This is new ground, and I wish we weren't there. I wish they hadn't revoked it, I wish CNN hadn't gone to a lawsuit."
Still, Garrett said he has enough respect for the office of the president — whomever is serving — to obey the commander-in-chief.
He recalled a recent story when he thought Trump called him and he began asking his question, only to have Trump tell him to stop talking because he had called on someone else. Garrett obliged and passed the mic.
"Some of my colleagues might say, what did you do that for? You had the microphone, you have a voice, you can speak?" Garrett said. "The president of the United States said not you. To my way of thinking, that's enough. The president said I didn't call on you, I called on somebody else. Alright then. … That's how I orient myself to the institution. I respect the institution and the country's choice."
Poster Comment:
You have to respect the institution.