The 5 Embarrassing Jim Acosta Clips That Cement His Legacy as a Media Hack and Complete Fraud

Those of us who haven’t spent much time in airport terminals recently might be forgiven for thinking that Jim Acosta had long left CNN, along with pretty much everyone else of note.

But, no — he of the permafixed hair and the undying grudge against Donald Trump was still with the network until his rage-quit Tuesday after a reshuffle would have put him in the graveyard shift.

Acosta is probably best known for his time antagonizing Trump as CNN’s White House correspondent during the Republican’s first term; after his presidency ended, so too did Acosta’s usefulness, and it became abundantly clear he’d outlived his welcome.

Nevertheless, he hung on for four years of increasing irrelevance until he decided enough was enough — and announced he was leaving CNN, partially because of the indignity of being offered a midnight Eastern time slot and partially, one assumes, because the network seems to want to cover Trump 47 as if it were a normal presidency, thus leaving Acosta’s role as official Trump ankle-biter completely redundant. (If only they’d done this the first time around, maybe they wouldn’t be having the credibility issues they’re facing, but I digress.)

“As the son of a Cuban refugee, I took home the lesson [that] it is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant,” Acosta said regarding his departure, according to the Associated Press. “I have always believed it’s the job of the press to hold power to account. I’ve always tried to do that at CNN and plan to go on doing it in the future.”

His final message to his viewers? “Don’t give in to the lies. Don’t give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth. And to hope.”

Right. It didn’t take social media users long to find clips of Acosta peddling lies, fear, untruths, and hopelessness for ratings, which made that parting message all the more hilarious.

Take this compilation, in which Acosta repeated the debunked claim that Trump called the white supremacists at the Charlottesville, Virginia, riot “very fine people,” and the debunked claim that Trump said Liz Cheney should be shot, and the debunked claim that Trump said it would be a “bloodbath” in America if he lost:

Jim Acosta: You can’t just spin a tale and pull the wool over people’s eyes. This is CNN. This is the news. 🤣

Hey Jim, look at yourself. 🤡 pic.twitter.com/pofXWTG2qo

— MAZE (@mazemoore) January 23, 2025

Each of these instances, of course, took Trump’s words wildly out of context — and nobody with a whit of common sense who listened to the whole clip could possibly believe that this is what he meant.

But “don’t give into the lies,” America! Don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes — you know, like Acosta’s did.

And if those three clips aren’t hilarious enough, check out Acosta getting humiliated by Trump and even Tennessee GOP Rep. Tim Burchett, who pointed out that CNN is such a trusted “news” source that the Cartoon Network gets better ratings:

2nd throwback when President Trump spanked Jim Acosta 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/mkpgpm4RxC

— Based DK (@Back_2TheMiddle) January 28, 2025

FYI: Jim Acosta’s career ended 5 days ago… @timburchett broke him. https://t.co/iennpj9p2V

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) January 28, 2025

If that’s not the nail in the coffin, I’m not sure what is.

It’s not certain where Acosta goes from here; I’m sure the Babylon Bee has an opening for him somewhere, but that’d force him to admit that he’s a self-parodying cretin who makes Ted Baxter look like Walter Cronkite.

However, as they say, the internet is forever — and these clips aren’t going to get any less funny as the years go by.

Sure, Jim, you may not have helped us hold on to the truth, but you sure helped us hold on to our sense of humor. Thanks for the laughs, Cpt. Brylcreem.

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