CNN’s Chris Cuomo snapped back at White House press secretary Sarah Sanders for her response to Trump supporters heckling Jim Acosta at a rally in Florida on Tuesday by pointing out the White House only truly seems to support free speech when it suits them.

Cuomo started by playing two clips of Sanders talking about freedom of speech.

In the first one, she says this: “Unfortunately, it’s now standard to abandon common sense ethical practices. This is a two-way street. We certainly support a free press. We certainly condemn violence against anybody. But we also ask that people act responsibly and report accurately and fairly.”

Then, in a second clip, she said this: “We certainly support freedom of the press. We also support freedom of speech, and we think that those things go hand in hand.”

Cuomo then stressed that Sanders’ post-rally response, she did not actually tell people not to be “ugly” to the press.

“What did she avoid?” Cuomo asked rhetorically. “She avoided saying to people ‘don’t shout at a free press, don’t be that ugly, don’t be that hostile, don’t threaten violence like that, be better than that, that Trump supporters are better than that.’ She didn’t say that. Why? You decide.”

He then said this: “And what speech do they support at the White House? They support speech like when Sanders justified the president calling the free press ‘scum’, right? ‘A stain on America,’ ‘The enemy of the people.’ They support all that as free speech. But they don’t support free speech when they don’t like it. That’s when they disinvite journalists and they shrink away from interviews and they won’t put their people out on shows like this.”

Cuomo was referring to the fact CNN’s Kaitlin Collins was recently disinvited from a White House event after she shouted out tough . questions at Trump — just as her fellow reporters do — during a press spray.

Likewise, National Security Advisor John Bolton was pulled from a CNN interview last month when Sanders claimed a reporter “disrespected” Trump.

Actually a @CNN reporter disrespected @POTUS & PM May during their press conf. Instead of rewarding bad behavior, we decided to reprioritize the TV appearances for administration officials. https://t.co/58LaJH6WaD — Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) July 14, 2018

He then concluded by saying this: “Now, what is our job? It’s to call it out, give the information to you, and let you make informed decisions. We are going to do that job no matter what the president encourages to stop us. In fact, I believe as deeply as anything that the president has made my job more important than ever.”

Watch above, via CNN

[image via screengrab]

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