Jim Acosta: White House doubles down on defence of apparently doctored video

The administration stands by its decision to tweet out the video

The White House has doubled down on its decision to tweet out video footage of a confrontation between CNN reporter Jim Acosta and a White House aide that some have claimed is doctored.

On Thursday morning, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted a video that sought to show Mr Acosta placing his hands the female White House aide as she tried to take a microphone away during Donald Trump’s post-midterms press conference.

The video was posted in support of the White House’s decision to revoke Mr Acosta’s press credentials on Wednesday night, after he questioned Mr Trump on his administration’s hardline immigration rhetoric about the asylum seekers and migrants walking towards the US-Mexico border.

Mr Trump then referred to Mr Acosta as a “rude, terrible person”.

Several journalists and video editors quickly suggested that the footage could have been manipulated by the source of the clip - conspiracy site Infowars - with the intention of denigrating Mr Acosta as having been violent.

The video was tweeted by Paul Joseph Watson, an editor at Infowars, who denied the footage was doctored. He claimed to BuzzFeed News that the video was “not edited - it's just zoomed in.”

In her statement, Ms Sanders said the Trump administration stood by the decision to tweet the video footage.

“The question is: did the reporter make contact or not?” she said. “The video is clear, he did. We stand by our statement.”

The White House intern who made contact with the reporter, did so as she sought take the microphone back from Mr Acosta.

“Just sit down, please,” Mr Trump told Mr Acosta. “When you report fake news – no – when you report fake news, which CNN does, a lot, you are the enemy of the people.”