After yesterday's completely fuckbonkers press conference with Donald Trump, the White House announced it was suspending press credentials for CNN's Jim Acosta. Acosta had angered the Great Man by asking too many questions yesterday, including one where he challenged Trump's characterization of Central American asylum seekers as an "invasion," and, after Trump told him to sit down and shut up, another in which he asked about the pipe bombs sent to CNN, which prompted Trump to say, "When you report fake news, you are the enemy of the people." Not that Trump was condoning violence, because Trump would never do such a thing except when he fantasizes about punching protesters in the face or declares a congressman who body-slammed a reporter for asking a question "my kind of guy."

The White House also insisted the suspension of Acosta's "hard pass" -- which allows regular access to the White House without additional screening -- had nothing to do with pissing off the "president," but was instead because he had been a brutal beast to a White House intern who'd been trying to grab the microphone and take it away. Here's the exchange between Acosta and Trump, with the intern grabbing unsuccessfully for the mic (just after the 12-second mark):

The brief contact between Acosta and the intern's arm is what Sarah Sanders says constituted Acosta "placing his hands on a young woman." On Twitter, Acosta replied to Sanders by simply saying "this is a lie," and CNN issued a statement condemning the suspension of Acosta's credentials and saying Sanders had just plain lied and falsely accused Acosta. The network also included a video showing the interaction, in which the intern tried to grab the mic, first reaching over his arm, then under it, at which point his hand came down and touched her arm. Yr Wonkette should note that most people who violently assault people tend not to say, "Pardon me, Ma'am."

Mind you, the Wingnuttosphere insists this is the most brutal assault on video they've ever seen. At the Gateway Pundit, the stupidest guest-blogger on the internet described the "assault" thusly:

Acosta does a quick tomahawk chop on the woman's left arm, briefly knocking her off balance by as she reaches for the mic.

He then cited a legal dictionary's description of assault and battery to prove that Acosta's brief contact was definitely criminal and quite possibly a violation of human rights. And all over the internet, wingnuts swore up and down they'd seen a very definite assault right there on video, and for that matter they were very concerned the brutal beating may have gotten bloodstains on the president's magnificent new clothes, too.

Sanders upped the ante from ridiculous press-baiting (and further stoked this nifty distraction from Trump's latest fuckery against the Mueller investigation) by posting another tweet saying the White House will "stand by" its revocation of Acosta's credential, and including what looks like a doctored slo-mo video of the encounter. This version has no sound (so hey, no "pardon me" to mess up the narrative) and seems to exaggerates the speed of Acosta's hand coming down, making it look like a karate chop.

The video was apparently first posted two hours earlier by very trustworthy Infowars "reporter" and loony Paul Joseph Watson, who's never met a conspiracy theory he didn't like. And now he's apparently actively in involved in creating them, too.

The Twitterverse is filling up with videos demonstrating what sure looks like a clear difference between the frame rate of the original and the Watson video, plus a lot of rightwing loons describing the encounter as everything between a wrestling match and Murder One. Here's a nice two-part debunking; it looks like Watson's video is definitely doctored, with a brief out-of-synch bit compared to the unaltered NBC version.

So now instead of talking about the administration doing serious mcfuckery to the Mueller investigation, at least a part of the press will be spending part of today just Zaprudering the hell out of the video Sanders posted. Which doesn't make this not important, because while obstruction of justice is definitely the greater crime, a White House dishing up faked video to justify its attacks on the press isn't exactly nothing, either. It's exactly the kind of authoritarian fact-gaming Trump and his White House have been using to pursue his war on reality since before Trump was even elected. These people know they're lying, and they simply don't care that their lies are called out, because as WaPo's Greg Sargent explains, this isn't about what actually happened, it's about who has the raw power to define what happened:

So yes, this is definitely a "distraction," but that doesn't make it unimportant. It's part of the entire administration's attempt to create a Potemkin "reality" where law enforcement must be prevented from investigating crimes done by the Trumps, because that's biased, taking children from their parents is a legitimate immigration policy, and you can't even believe your own lying eyes, but need to be told what you just saw. And if you don't believe, here's a better version of what we say you saw.

It's all of a piece, and anyone who points it out is probably some kind of vicious fake newser.

[WaPo / HuffPo/ Business Insider / Aymann Ismail on Twitter / Greg Sargent on Twitter]

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