The day after CNN reporter Jim Acosta and President-elect Donald Trump got into a heated exchange during a press conference, a GOP member of Congress said Acosta should be fired.
Randy Weber of Texas' 14th district tweeted the comment early Thursday, claiming that Acosta was "disrespectful" to Trump.
"The CNN reporter who was disruptive to the press briefing, and disrespectful to Trump should be fired and prohibited from any press briefings," Weber said.
On Tuesday, CNN reported that intelligence officials gave a two-page summary of an unverified 35-page dossier to President Barack Obama involving Trump's connection to Russia's alleged hacking of the DNC email server. CNN's report has since been corroborated by Vice President Joe Biden and other intelligence officials.
Later on Tuesday, BuzzFeed released the full 35-page dossier, despite its unverified nature.
On Wednesday during Trump's only news conference after last year's election, Trump claimed the information contained in the dossier was false. Trump said that BuzzFeed would "suffer the consequences" for publishing the leaked document.
Trump added that he thought CNN went out of its way to build up the dossier, even though CNN did not report the contents of the document.
In response to Trump's comments, Acosta tried to ask Trump what was inaccurate about CNN's report; something Trump refused to do.
"Mr. President-elect, since you are attacking our news organization..." Acosta said before Trump said, "Your organization is terrible."
Trump went on to say CNN was "fake news," a comment that has been rebuked by other media outlets, including top cable news competitor Fox News. Trump's response drew cheers from several of his supporters in attendance.
CNN's original report was not authored by Acosta. The story was co-written by Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto, Jake Tapper and Carl Bernstein.
Weber originally supported Ted Cruz before Cruz dropped out of the race in May. Weber was not vocal in his support for Trump until after Trump became elected. Weber was more vocal on keeping Democrat Hillary Clinton from winning the election.
Tapper responded to Weber's call to fire Acosta with a copy of the first amendment, which protects the freedom of the press.
@TXRandy14 ICYMI pic.twitter.com/lQIgKUdwAw
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 12, 2017
Thursday's tweet was not the first time Weber used social media to draw attention. Before Obama's 2014 State of the Union address, Weber said ,"On floor of house waitin on "Kommandant-In-Chef"... the Socialistic dictator who's been feeding US a line or is it 'A-Lying?'"
On floor of house waitin on "Kommandant-In-Chef"... the Socialistic dictator who's been feeding US a line or is it "A-Lying?"
— Randy Weber (@TXRandy14) January 29, 2014
