Marking one of his first major interviews since leaving CNN, the network’s former anchor and political correspondent Jim Acosta joined this week’s episode of The Daily Beast Podcast.
In conversation with co-hosts Joanna Coles and Samantha Bee, Acosta criticized Elon Musk’s growing influence in the White House, arguing that Donald Trump has essentially handed him the presidency—while allowing him to purge government agencies and amass private data. “Steve Bannon might be jealous that Elon Musk has become the Steve Bannon of the second Trump administration,” Acosta added.
Acosta urged journalists to push back on the Trump administration’s attempts to pare back press freedoms, citing the White House banning the Associated Press from the Oval Office (and other briefings) for refusing to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” He argued that taking cameras away from Trump is the only way to make him respect the media—parenting by withholding.
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Now working independently, he also vowed to fight disinformation: “We need people committed to a sane world of reality and truth-telling.”
Author of The Survivor’s Club and Daily Beast publisher Ben Sherwood stuck the landing with reassuring words for listeners who may be concerned about the recent uptick in plane crashes, explaining that the odds of dying in such an incident are 1 in 25 million—about as likely as flipping heads 24 times in a row. (Leave the quarter in your pocket, OK? Don’t tempt fate.) Sherwood shared survival tips gleaned from FAA training, advising passengers to sit within five rows of an exit and wear lace-up shoes in case they need to escape across broken glass or burning jet fuel.
And in keeping with the doomsday theme, the host’s conversation shifted to survivalism, with Bee revealing she has multiple go-bags “filled with tuna” ready for the right (or is it wrong?) moment. Coles, politely, labeled this a “superpower.”
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