Jim Acosta Leaves CNN After Rejecting Midnight Shift Offer

The veteran journalist, who has gained fame for his coverage of the Trump administration, told viewers on Tuesday that he would be leaving the network, rather than accept the new role of an anchor of a live two-hour newscast that would start at midnight Eastern time.

"I've decided to move on," Acosta said at the end of his "CNN Newsroom" broadcast. "One final message, don't give in to the lies, don't give into the fear." Acosta, 53, worked in CNN from 2007, before he served in CBS News. He gained fame as a national political correspondent and eventually became the chief White House correspondent for the network in 2018.

“Jim has had a long, distinguished nearly 20-year career at CNN, with a track record of standing up to authority, for the first amendment and for our journalistic freedoms," the network said in a statement. "We want to thank him for the dedication and commitment he’s brought to his reporting and wish him the very best in the future.”

It comes a day after CNN announced it was shaking up its daytime schedule. The network is moving "The Situation Room" with anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown into the 10 a.m. Eastern hour where viewers have found Acosta since early last year. Changes are set to occur in March.

CNN Chairman Mark Thompson said that this is a new slot for an all-new newscast that is to be shown during prime time in the West Coast where cable news now airs programs, which it rebroadcast earlier during the day.

But the notion of the move was largely to banish the journalist to a TV backwater where viewers and advertiser dollars are scarce.

Indeed, the political environment also made CNN's reasoning dubious to some. Acosta has been the most combative journalist covering the Trump administration. A 2018 briefing room dust-up during the president's first term led to a suspension of Acosta's White House press credential, which a court reinstated.

Several political commentators said CNN wanted to move Acosta out of a more visible time period as a way of placating Trump, who is known for being vengeful toward his media critics. Acosta's exit will further the narrative that CNN has softened its approach to covering Trump in his second term.

"Acosta is one of your most independent, unafraid hosts," Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman and frequent CNN guest wrote Thursday on social media. "To demote him to ... appease the crybaby in the White House is pathetic. And an abdication of your duty to hold ALL public officials to account. Shame on you CNN."