‘If Trump Had Just Been a Man!’ CNN’s Acosta Clashes With Contributor For Downplaying Jan. 6

Things got heated on CNN when anchor Jim Acosta pushed back against contributor David Urban over former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies and the role they played in the January 6 attack.

While discussing how Trump is sowing doubt about the 2024 election — and how one person who peddled Trump’s 2020 election lies now faced a nine-year prison sentence — Urban, a former advisor on Trump’s presidential campaigns, tried to downplay the ex-president’s role in inciting American distrust in their elections, asking (without a sense of irony): “Why in America do people have so much distrust about our electoral system?” His explanation was that American elections are not “radically transparent” enough. Acosta disagreed, and the conversation only heated up from there. Contributor Karen Finney pointed out how Trump has been claiming the 2020 election was rigged since he lost:

Finney: We are now for making it as easy as possible for every American to vote rather than making it harder for certain people to vote. Instead, what you’ve had is four years of a former president trashing this system. And by the way, to what the judge said, there are dangerous consequences to the president’s lies. People died on January 6th.

Urban: The only person who died on January 6th was Ashli Babbitt, who was murdered. That’s the only person that died, Karen. Let’s be straight. On January 6th.

Acosta: There were police officers who died–

Urban: I’m not trying to minimize it. I’m not trying to–

Acosta: Police officers were beaten with–

Urban: Jim, Jim, Jim–

Acosta: Let’s not do that one, then–

Urban: Jim! Jim! It’s terrible, right?

Acosta: None of that — David, David, David, none of that would have happened if Donald Trump had just been a man and accepted the election results in 2020.

Urban: I’m not so sure you can–

Acosta: If he had just manned up. No, that’s it. That’s it! That’s the whole ballgame.

The heated exchange was brought to an end only by Finney imploring everyone to calm down.

Watch the video above via CNN.