CNN reporter lashes out at Sean Spicer for off-camera briefing: 'He's just kind of useless'

CNN correspondent Jim Acosta blasted the White House on Monday for holding an off-camera press conference that news outlets were not permitted to record.
Speaking to CNN's Brooke Baldwin after the briefing, Acosta lashed out at press secretary Sean Spicer, and questioned why he and other reporters bothered attending in the first place.
"The White House press secretary is getting to a point, Brooke, where he's just kind of useless," Acosta said. "If he can't come out and answer the questions, and they're just not going to do this on camera or audio, why are we even having these briefings or these gaggles in the first place?"
Acosta pointed to multiple recent instances in which Spicer has declined to answer questions about President Donald Trump's position on climate change, leading Baldwin to wonder aloud if Spicer is even having conversations with the president about the subject.
White House Communications Director Sean Spicer holds the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S. February 2, 2017.
(REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer (L) takes questions during a daily briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House January 23, 2017 in Washington, DC. Spicer conducted his first official White House daily briefing to take questions from the members of the White House press corps.
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer holds the daily press briefing January 23, 2017 at the White House in Washington, DC.
(NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. President Donald Trump (L-R), joined by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Mike Pence, senior advisor Steve Bannon, Communications Director Sean Spicer and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, speaks by phone with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. January 28, 2017.
(REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
White House spokesman Sean Spicer takes questions during his press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2017.
(REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
Rivals Brad Woodhouse (left) and Sean Spicer pose for a photograph outside Bullfeathers in Washington, D.C. on November 08, 2011. Sean Spicer and Brad Woodhouse (spokesmen for the RNC and DNC) hosts Congressional and other flacks to the 1st Annual 'Flacks for Flacks Who Wear Flak Jackets' Benefiting Military Public Affairs Officers serving in Afghanistan.
(Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Trump advisor Steve Bannon (2L), White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus (R), and White House spokesman Sean Spicer look on before the announcement of the Supreme Court nominee at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 31, 2017. President Donald Trump nominated federal appellate judge Neil Gorsuch as his Supreme Court nominee, tilting the balance of the court back in the conservatives' favor.
(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
Sean Spicer, White House press secretary, center, attends a swearing in ceremony of White House senior staff in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Trump today mocked protesters who gathered for large demonstrations across the U.S. and the world on Saturday to signal discontent with his leadership, but later offered a more conciliatory tone, saying he recognized such marches as a hallmark of our democracy.
(Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sean Spicer, left, is the new communications director for the Republican National Committee, and Rick Wiley, is the RNC� new political director.
(Photo by Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images)
Sean Spicer, White House press secretary, arrives to a swearing in ceremony of White House senior staff in the East Room of the White House on January 22, 2017 in Washington, DC. Trump today mocked protesters who gathered for large demonstrations across the U.S. and the world on Saturday to signal discontent with his leadership, but later offered a more conciliatory tone, saying he recognized such marches as a 'hallmark of our democracy.'
(Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images)
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer makes a statement to members of the media at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House January 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. This was Spicer's first press conference as Press Secretary where he spoke about the media's reporting on the inauguration's crowd size.
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Stephen Miller(L) and Sean Spicer, arrive to meet with US President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York on January 10, 2017.
(BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP/Getty Images)
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer makes a statement to members of the media at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House January 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. This was Spicer's first press conference as Press Secretary where he spoke about the media's reporting on the inauguration's crowd size.
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer holds the daily press briefing January 23, 2017 at the White House in Washington, DC.
(NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer takes a photo with his cell phone on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. In today's inauguration ceremony Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States.
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the House Republican Conference, updates waiting media on progress of the meeting as House Republicans, eager to put a fresh face on their leadership team as they head into difficult November elections, chose John A. Boehner of Ohio as their new majority leader. Boehner beat out interim Majority Leader Roy Blunt of Missouri on the second ballot, 122-109. John Shadegg of Arizona, a late entrant into the race, was knocked out on the first ballot, when he drew 40 votes to 79 for Boehner and 110 for Blunt. Jim Ryun of Kansas drew two votes.
(Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images)
Sean Spicer, incoming press secretary for President-elect Donald Trump leaves from Trump Tower after meetings on January 5, 2017, in New York.
(KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images)
Chief Strategist and Communications Director at the Republican National Committee, Sean Spicer is interviewed in his office at the committee's headquarters on Monday August 15, 2016 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Matt McClain/ The Washington Post via Getty Images)
National security adviser General Michael Flynn (L) arrives to deliver a statement next to Press Secretary Sean Spicer during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington U.S., February 1, 2017.
(REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer speaks during a daily briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House January 23, 2017 in Washington, DC. Spicer conducted his first official White House daily briefing to take questions from the members of the White House press corps.
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Press Secretary Sean Spicer speaks as television screen displays journalists who participate in the daily briefing via Skype at the White House in Washington U.S., February 1, 2017.
(REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
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"It's a really good question, Brooke, and it's a question that I would ask, but unfortunately at this White House we wouldn't have the video or audio to show you the answer to that question because of the stonewalling we're getting over here," Acosta said.
Acosta then linked Monday's off-camera press briefing to Trump's reluctance to hold press conferences — he's held a handful of brief joint press conferences with foreign leaders, but only one on his own since becoming president in January.
"I don't know why everybody is going along with this," Acosta said. "It just doesn't make any sense to me, and it just feels like we're sort of slowly but surely being dragged into what is a new normal in this country where the president of the United States of America is allowed to insulate himself from answering hard questions."
The commentary echoed points Acosta made on Twitter during Monday's briefing, in which he again accused the White House of "stonewalling" and bemoaned what he saw as "a suppression of information."
The Spicer off-camera/no audio gaggle has begun. I can't show you a pic of Sean. So here is a look at some new socks I bought over the wknd pic.twitter.com/wO9erspwYa
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 19, 2017
Make no mistake about what we are all witnessing. This is a WH that is stonewalling the news media. Hiding behind no camera/no audio gaggles
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 19, 2017
There is a suppression of information going on at this WH that would not be tolerated at a city council mtg or press conf with a state gov.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 19, 2017
Call me old fashioned but I think the White House of the United States of America should have the backbone to answer questions on camera.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 19, 2017
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