Former CNN host Jim Acosta expressed concern on “To the Contrary With Charlie Sykes” Thursday that President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about former President Barack Obama could endanger his life.
During a Tuesday Oval Office press conference, the president accused Obama of being “guilty” of “treason.” Acosta told host Charlie Sykes on his podcast that Trump’s accusation was “highly dangerous” and could incite violence against Obama from one of his supporters. (RELATED: Trump Compares ‘Jeffrey Epstein Hoax’ To Russiagate, Blasts ‘Past’ Supporters)
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“It is highly dangerous for Donald Trump to accuse Barack Obama of treason,” Acosta said. “He knows full well when he puts that kind of content out in the atmosphere, especially with his fringe base, that he might potentially be putting the life of the former president in danger when he engages in that kind of rhetoric.”
“And it seems to me that we’re in a position right now where Donald Trump is really at war with the truth. And he’s weaponized these lies about the election,” he added. “He’s weaponized these lies about Barack Obama. These are his weapons of mass destruction. And to me, what he is doing is he is bombarding and doing violence to the truth in this country.”
Although Acosta worried that the president’s rhetoric could endanger Obama, the former CNN host apparently had no such concern during an April 5 interview on Mediaite’s “Press Club” about spewing alarmist rhetoric about Trump when he was a former president.
“[I]f you take a look at what took place on January 6, the things that he has said since then, I mean I don’t think that is really a debate that needs to be settled at this point,” he said at the time. “I think it’s something that we have to cover. We have to cover how he poses a threat to American democracy and he is in command of an extremist movement in this country.”
Just three months after the interview was published, a would-be assassin shot Trump in the ear during a July 13, 2024, campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He also faced a second assassination attempt in September.
The suspect in the second attempt, Ryan Wesley Routh, seems to have previously donated to Democrats while living in Hawaii, according to federal campaign finance records.
One of Routh’s posts included similar language to Acosta’s. He wrote in April 2024 that “DEMOCRACY is on the ballot,” according to reports.
Routh’s full post tagged former President Joe Biden and stated, “@POTUS Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA …make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose,” according to Reuters.
Trump’s “treason” accusation against Obama followed Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard publishing a declassified file on Friday that she said consists of “overwhelming evidence” that Obama and his national security team “manufactured and politicized intelligence” after the president’s 2016 win.
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