Trump asked if he is 'sore loser' by CNN reporter Jim Acosta after baseless rant about election fraud

Trump and Acosta have a history of clashes

Donald Trump was asked if he is a “sore loser” on Thursday night after the president’s 17-minute rant about being “cheated” out of an election victory – by a reporter who has been involved in multiple spats with Mr Trump in the past.

CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta directed the question at Mr Trump’s turned back, after the president walked off without taking any follow-ups from the assembled media. Acosta twice called out, “Are you being a sore loser?” before Mr Trump disappeared down a corridor.

In the briefing, announced at short notice, the president claimed the election had been “rigged” against him, again raising doubts over the mail-in ballots which are contributing to delays with the results. Mr Trump and Mr Biden remain neck-and-neck, though the Democrat has said he believes he is winning.

Claiming that there was “no blue wave”, Mr Trump said: “We won by historic numbers. And the pollsters got it knowingly wrong, they got it knowingly wrong. We had polls that were so ridiculous and everybody knew it at the time. There was no blue wave that they predicted.”

The White House briefing on Thursday took place after a long silence since he addressed a late briefing on the night of the election itself. Mr Trump’s campaign has since filed several lawsuits against the ongoing count of ballots in several states.

In a rare move, several networks including CBS, NBC and ABC cut away from Thursday night’s briefing as the president continued to make unfounded claims which the networks said they couldn’t fact check in real time.

The reporters present at the briefing itself also asked the president to explain his claims, though he ignored their questions. 

Those trying to follow up on the monologue as Mr Trump stormed out included CNN’s Acosta, who has become a familiar foe during briefings throughout the president’s term.

The history between the pair includes Mr Trump’s repeated allegations against CNN of being biased and “fake news” and a lawsuit filed by the network against the White House after it revoked Acosta’s press credentials.

Earlier this year during Mr Trump’s visit to Delhi, a question by Acosta about foreign electoral interference and Mr Trump’s new acting director of national intelligence quickly deteriorated into both sides taking digs at each other’s credibility.

In 2018, an Acosta question about Mr Trump demonising immigrants also resulted in a testy exchange, with Mr Trump saying: “I think you should let me run the country, you run CNN, if you did it well, your ratings would be much better.”

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