Conservatives are attacking CNN's Jim Acosta after he suggested that any potential violence against journalists could be blamed on the White House.

Acosta said in a recent interview with Variety magazine that President Trump's slights against the news media are "an act" but that some people who hear them may take them seriously.

[Also read: Jim Acosta, April Ryan getting death threats because of their reporting on Trump]

"The problem is that people around the country don’t know it’s an act,” he said. “They’re not in on the act, and they take what he says very seriously, and they take attacks from [former White House press secretary] Sean Spicer and Sarah Sanders and what they do to us on a daily basis very seriously."

He added, "They don’t have all their faculties in some cases."

Some conservatives took that as a direct insult.

"I don't mind that from a liberal activist," Spicer, Trump's former White House press secretary, said Wednesday on Fox News in response to Acosta's remarks. "But when you have a reporter ... saying that the people don't get it, that's a problem."

Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin called Acosta's remarks "a common disparagement of Trump voters."

The Right-leaning website Daily Wire characterized the comments as an attack on "stupid 'unstable' Trump supporters."

Acosta is regularly seen jousting with the White House during the daily press briefings and has publicly described the administration as a threat to the First Amendment.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.