It remains to be seen whether Acosta’s news conference performance will save his job. As The New York Times reported, “Mr. Acosta’s appearance before cameras was seen as a crucial test of whether he will keep his job, with an audience of one as President Trump watched and weighed a decision.”

But that’s the thing that stops you: For Trump, this isn’t about the charges or the children. For him, this is about how men perform denial. In the mind of the misogynist, a man’s word is the weightiest thing in society, even when he’s lying. One’s test of survival and prosperity isn’t what you say, but how you say it. It isn’t what you do, but how you defend or deny it.

Acosta did exactly what his audience of one would like: waffled, deflected and, notably, refused to apologize to the victims in the case and refused to say that he regretted his actions.

Instead, Acosta said that the case was a hard one and it would have been a gamble to take it to trial, so he cut a deal. But, as CNN’s Kara Scannell pointed out, “Acosta is center stage because of a once-secret 2007 nonprosecution agreement he reached as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida with Epstein, the multimillionaire with connections to the highest levels of U.S. politics and business.”

Something here doesn’t pass the smell test. Acosta is asking us to ignore what we see — a billionaire with powerful friends got a slap on the wrist where others would have been buried in charges — and simply listen to what he says — that he really wanted to help the young victims.