CNN's Acosta: Trump's Protest Tweet Obviously 'Incendiary, Outrageous and Just Offensive'

Friday on CNN, network White House reporter Jim Acosta criticized President Donald Trump’s for his tweet about the protests, looting and fires in Minneapolis Thursday night.

Acosta called it “an incendiary, outrageous and just offensive tweet.”

The tweet that was flagged by Twitter said, “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen,” he tweeted. “Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty, and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”

Acosta said, “We should point out the president is quoting in that tweet last night ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts,’ he is quoting Miami Police, Chief Walter Headley. Who in 1967, when there was unrest in Miami during that volatile time, ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts,’ made clear not only to police officers but to people in Miami. At the time, The Miami Herald at the time reported Headley, let the word filter down ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts,’ and told any force up to death is proper when apprehending a felon. That was the context of the original quote back in 1967. Whether or not the president is aware of the original context of that quote, that is something we’ll ask about the press conference in a couple of minutes from now, but it is hard to imagine that is not what was going through his mind when he posted that tweet last night.”

He continued, “The president has a long history of incendiary tweets and incendiary rhetoric and even commented on the subject of how police should handle people brought into custody. He has encouraged police officers over the years to rough up people who have been brought into custody and so forth. Described as we know, African-American professional athletes as sons of bitches when they kneel, take a knee during professional football games and protests of police brutality, and I suspect these will be brought up at the news conference.”

He added, “The president before this news conference is starting trying to clean up what is obviously an incendiary outrageous and just offensive tweet which has the potential to spark violence, to cause violence. That’s why Twitter put a label on that tweet saying that this tweet has the potential to glorify violence and lead to violence.”

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