In a contentious press conference at Trump Tower today, President-elect Donald Trump fielded questions about a litany of issues involving Russia, conflicts of interest, and the now meaningless term "fake news." He refused, however, to engage with a crucial question from CNN's Jim Acosta, whose outlet published a report yesterday that American intelligence chiefs had presented the president-elect with claims that the Russian government had attempted to "compromise him."

The question: Did Trump or his representatives have contact with Russia or Russian intermediaries in the lead-up the election? In response, Trump essentially shouted down Acosta—who, despite not being called on, repeatedly spoke out and attempted to get the president-elect's attention—and told the reporter that CNN was "fake news."

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Here's the transcript of the exchange:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Former ABC News reporter Ann Compton reportedly asked a similar question, which Trump avoided:

Later, Acosta reported Trump did have an answer once they were off-camera:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

.@Acosta says that as Trump was going to elevators, he said "no," that his team didn't have contact with Russia — Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) January 11, 2017

He also reported that Sean Spicer, the former communications director for the Republican National Committee who will serve as Trump's press secretary, threatened to throw Acosta out of the press conference:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

.@Acosta says on CNN that @seanspicer threatened to throw him out of the press conference if he tried to press @realDonaldTrump again — Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) January 11, 2017

Meanwhile, CNN has defended its reporting on the original story. In a statement, the network made the crucial distinction between what it decided to report—that government intelligence officials had briefed the president and president-elect on an ongoing investigation, which has been verified—and what BuzzFeed did in publishing so-far unsubstantiated claims.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io