Jim Acosta leaving CNN: ‘I’ve decided to move on’
Jim Acosta is saying goodbye to CNN.
The anchor and former White House correspondent is leaving his network home of 18 years. He made the announcement at the end of his newscast on Tuesday morning.
“I just wanted to end today’s show by thanking all of the wonderful people who work behind the scenes at this network. You may have seen some reports about me and the show, and after giving all of this some careful consideration and weighing an alternative time slot CNN offered me, I’ve decided to move on,” he explained.
Sources close to the situation said CNN wanted to keep Acosta employed but wanted him to move to a different time slot, between midnight and 2 a.m. He currently anchors the 10 a.m. slot. This comes a few days after CNN announced it would be switching up some of its programming and those changes seem to have impacted the journalist.
Acosta is the first big name to exit CNN amid the changes being put in place.
The newsletter “The Status” was the first to report the news.
The veteran journalist continued his goodbye by looking back at his nearly two decades with the network.
“People often ask me if the highlight of my career at CNN was at the White House covering Donald Trump. Actually, no, that moment came here when I covered former President Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba in 2016 and had the chance to question the dictator there, Raul Castro, about the island’s political prisoners. As the son of a Cuban refugee, I took home this lesson, it is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant,” he said. “I have always believed it’s the job of the press to hold power to account. I’ve always tried to do that here at CNN, and I plan on doing all of that in the future.”
During President Donald Trump’s first term in office, many will remember his contentious exchanges with Acosta during media briefings. At one point, the White House revoked Acosta’s press pass.
“One final message, don’t give in to the lies. Don’t give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth and to hope,” Acosta said before signing off.
The anchor’s departure comes just over a week after the president was sworn in for his second term. Acosta told CEO Mark Thompson that the timing seemed suspicious, a source told Deadline.