CNN's Jim Acosta calls Trump's behavior on his Puerto Rico trip exactly what it was

The president threw rolls of paper towels into a crowd of hurricane victims

Published October 4, 2017 12:00PM (EDT)

 (CNN/YouTube/Screen Grab)
(CNN/YouTube/Screen Grab)

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

AlterNet

CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta did not hold back in assessing the train wreck that was President Donald Trump's visit to Puerto Rico.

“It seems when the teleprompter is off, often the wheels come off, and we saw that happen earlier today in Puerto Rico,” Acosta said to host Don Lemon.

During the visit, Trump joked about how Puerto Ricans were interfering with his budget and dismissed the death toll as being less terrible than past tragedies.

An already infamous clip of the president from the visit to a relief center shows him throwing rolls of paper towels to hurricane survivors like he was at a promotional event. Another shows him telling a survivor to "have a good time."

“Can you imagine if we were covering President Barack Obama visiting a hurricane zone, an area devastated by a hurricane, and Barack Obama had been throwing rolls of paper towels at hurricane victims?” Acosta asked in disbelief at the president's "strange and un-presidential" behavior. “To me, it’s almost like we’ve lost our sense of what is purely outrageous coming from this president anymore.”

Watch Acosta's comments below.


By Chris Sosa

Chris Sosa is a managing editor at AlterNet. His work also appears in Mic, Salon, Care2, Huffington Post and other publications. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisSosa.

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Alternet Disaster Relief Jim Acosta Puerto Rico