During a White House press briefing Thursday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders used the podium to tell CNN’s Jim Acosta that his network’s “numbers would be higher” if President Trump watched CNN.
“I’m sure you are disappointed he’s not watching CNN,” Sanders said, responding to Acosta’s questions about the President’s habit of watching “Fox and Friends” and responding to that show’s reports on Twitter.
On Thursday, Trump’s cryptic tweet about the administration’s stance on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act appeared to be fueled by a discussion on “Fox and Friends,” where personality Andrew Napolitano was skeptical of the President’s support of reauthorizing the FISA Act.
“I think he watches a lot of CNN, if you don’t mind me saying it,” Acosta said.
“I don’t think that’s true, your numbers would be higher,” Sanders responded, before defending Trump’s contradictory tweets, giving a similar line that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) offered earlier Thursday — that Trump was alluding to his concerns over domestic surveillance, rather than Section 702 of the law, which focuses on the surveillance of foreign targets.
On Thursday afternoon, the House voted to renew Section 702 of the FISA Act and added a provision that would require the FBI to get a warrant before it could view the contents of Americans’ communication with foreign targets.
