Jim Acosta video shared by White House appears to be from Infowars

A White House intern tried
to take CNN journalist Jim Acosta’s microphone during a press
conference on Wednesday.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

• White House Press Secretary is accused of sharing a
  doctored video of CNN’s Jim Acosta from far-right outlet
  Infowars.
• A White House intern tried to take Acosta’s microphone
  away when Trump dodged Acosta’s questions on Wednesday, and the
  White House alleges that Acosta put his hands on her.
• Sanders is accused of sharing a video that slows down
  the intern’s approach and speeds up Acosta’s movements to make
  the moment appear more violent.
• Acosta calls the accusation that he put his hands on
  the intern a “lie.” 

The White House is accused of using a video of CNN’s Jim Acosta
doctored by far-right outlet Infowars as justification for

suspending the journalist’s press pass.

Trump clashed with Acosta at a press conference in the White
House on Wednesday when a White House intern walked up and tried
to take his microphone away. Acosta held on and kept trying to
question Trump. 

Read More: 

The
moment a White House intern confronted CNN correspondent Jim
Acosta during a tense exchange with Trump, in 3 photos

At one point, the intern puts her arm underneath Acosta’s to try
and grab the microphone, and he pushed his arm down. Here is the
moment as broadcast live on NBC:

But White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been
accused of sharing a doctored version of the video, which slows
down the intern’s approach and speeds up Acosta’s arm movement,
making the moment appear more violent.

Here is the video shared by Sanders:

What appears to be the same video was shared two hours earlier by
Paul Joseph Watson, the editor-at-large of Infowars.com, a
far-right outlet whose content has been banned from almost every
major tech outlet
including Apple, Facebook, Spotify, and YouTube for spreading
conspiracy theories.

CNN journalist Brian Stelter asked Sanders
for the source of the “distorted” video on Twitter. ” Surely you
don’t trust InfoWars…?” he asked.

Other Twitter users said that you could see that Sanders’ video
had been doctored when compared to other videos at different
speeds. 

Sanders used footage from the event to justify revoking Acosta’s
press pass. She said on
Twitter that the White House would “never tolerate a
reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her
job as a White House intern.”

In response, Acosta said that Sanders’ statement was “a
lie.”

Acosta told
CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday that he did not
“put my hands on her or touch her as they’re
alleging.”

“It’s unfortunate the White House is saying this,” he said.
“I think I handled myself professionally.”

Acosta had been repeatedly challenging the president’s
characterization of a Central American migrant caravan as an
invasion, and asking questions about the Russia
investigation.

The
White House Press Association condemned the White House’s
decision, saying that it should “immediately reverse
this weak and misguided action.”