Trump adviser demands reporter be punished just for doing his job

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale freaked out and demanded that a CNN reporter be disciplined just for doing his job Monday afternoon.

During a photo op with children at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, CNN reporter Jim Acosta asked about Trump’s recent Twitter rants about DACA, the program he rescinded in September that protected young immigrants from deportation.

“What about the DACA kids?” Acosta asked from behind the press barrier. “Should they worry about what’s going to happen to them?”

Trump responded with his new favorite, and completely baseless, talking point.

“The Democrats have really let them down,” he said. “They really let them down. They had this great opportunity. The Democrats have really let them down. It’s a shame. And now people are taking advantage of DACA and that’s a shame.”

“Didn’t you kill DACA, sir? Didn’t you kill DACA?” Acosta called out, only to be ignored by Trump.

While Trump frequently fields questions at photo ops, Acosta’s extremely brief questioning did not sit well with Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale.

“Maybe it is time for Jim Acosta to get a suspension for breaking protocol,” Parscale tweeted. “He continues to embarrass himself and @CNN. Pull his credentials for each incident.”

Acosta responded to Parscale in fairly short order.

“Just doing my job, which is protected by the First Amendment of The Constitution,” he tweeted. “You might want to give it a read.”

Parscale later said that the White House should “pull credentials,” and accused Acosta of being “disrespectful” for “yelling questions.” He said such behavior “would have never been allowed previously.”

Obviously, there is no such protocol, and even when President Obama was heckled in the middle of a Rose Garden speech about immigration — which is a violation of protocol — no action was taken against that reporter. And Obama never went more than a year without a press conference.

But Trump is no Obama. Trump’s sycophants are conspicuously averse to having their boss questioned or challenged in any way. And while Jim Acosta has been a favorite target of Trump’s attacks, the CNN correspondent refuses to back down.