White House goes after longtime reporter foe who tried to find the 350-foot cut in the Reflecting Pool

White House goes after longtime reporter foe who tried to find the 350-foot cut in the Reflecting Pool Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta labelled ‘truly one of the dumbest individuals to have ever existed’ after investigating President Donald Trump’s claim the pool was slashed by saboteurs - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments The White House has lashed out at former CNN reporter Jim Acosta after he posted a spoof report about the troubled makeover of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. In the clip, Acosta patrols the pool in search of the 350-foot “slit” Trump has claimed vandals have slashed into the base of the D.C. landmark. After finding nothing, the reporter concludes: “What he’s saying is 100 percent pure bulls***.” The official White House Rapid Response account retweeted the video with the comment: “Jim, you are truly one of the dumbest individuals to have ever existed. Please seek professional help.” Acosta was CNN’s chief White House correspondent during both Barack Obama and first Trump administrations. However, he had his press credentials suspended in November 2018 after being falsely accused of pushing an intern at a briefing, leading to a row over a doctored video of the incident and a short-lived lawsuit before his access was restored. He left CNN in late January last year after declining to take a late-night shift that would have required him to relocate to Los Angeles. Trump reacted to the shakeup with glee on Truth Social, calling him “one of the worst and most dishonest reporters in journalistic history, a major sleazebag” and “a major loser who will fail no matter where he ends up.” Acosta responded to the attack by observing: “Looks like somebody has ADS: Acosta Derangement Syndrome.” The president’s botched attempt to “beautify” the 103-year-old Reflecting Pool by surfacing its concrete bottom in “American flag blue” has unexpectedly turned into a summer saga. After initially saying it would cost no more than $2 million, the estimated cost of Trump’s pet project has ballooned to more than $16 million, with the contracts handed out on a no-bid basis and without any planning approval being sought. The controversy then took an unexpected turn when, shortly after the pool was refilled with water earlier this month, the sealant used on its bottom began to peel away and its surface turned a toxic green color caused by unchecked algae blooms. Trump blamed saboteurs for ruining his vision, claiming that a box cutter or knife had been used to make the offending slash along the pool’s bottom and that fertilizer may have been dumped into the water to encourage the growth of the blooms. Journalists and tourists duly flocked to see the damage before the president announced on Tuesday that six people had been arrested and promised the structure would be drained and fixed “either immediately before or after the Fourth of July.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News viewers that the suspects apprehended were “deranged individuals, many of them longtime donors to the Democrat Party, to Barack Obama, to Act Blue,” a line Trump repeated when he met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte Wednesday. “You know, one of the guys, he’s a member or a big player to ActBlue,” the president told Rutte. “He’s a big Hillary supporter, he’s a big supporter of Sleepy Joe Biden.” As members of the National Guard defend the pool and helicopters circle overhead to prevent further incident, work has commenced to resurface the base and kill off the algae using hydrogen peroxide and vacuums. However, dead ducks have reportedly been found nearby, posing a further potential environmental headache for the contractors battling to get the project back on track. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, lawmakers have demanded answers about how the situation ever came to pass. Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said the episode meant the nation’s capital “will now celebrate America's 250th birthday with an empty Reflecting Pool, a testament to incompetence.” Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments