White House suspends press credentials of CNN reporter

In an unprecedented move, the White House has suspended the press credentials of a CNN journalist terming his behaviour as "disgusting and outrageous", hours after he engaged in a heated argument with President Donald Trump during a press conference.

Defending it chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta, the CNN said the decision is "a threat to democracy".

The White House's move followed a heated exchange between Trump and Acosta who refused the President's orders to sit down and clung to the microphone and persisted with questions about his views on a caravan of Central American migrants making its way to the US border.

A visibly angry Trump said "that's enough!" and a White House intern unsuccessfully tried to take the microphone from the CNN journalist.

Describing Acosta's behaviour as "disgusting and outrageous", the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, in a statement on Wednesday said, "As a result of today's incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice."
Peter Baker from The New York Times, who has been covering the White House for 22 years, said, "This is something I have never seen since I started covering the White House in 1996. Other presidents did not fear tough questioning."