Jim Acosta urges TV networks to stop airing some Trump speeches live, calls them 'totally nuts'

Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta urged television networks to forgo live coverage of President Donald Trump's primetime address last Thursday, warning they would be "totally nuts" to air what he described as the president's "conspiracy theories" without immediately fact-checking them.

"I think the networks are totally nuts if they take this speech live," Acosta said on "The Joy Reid Show."

"It is totally crazy to put his bats--- ‘Looney Tunes’ conspiracy theories on live national television without fact-checkers in real time, and some of the networks will say, 'Well, we'll have some fact-checkers on afterwards,' and the fact-checkers will come on and say, 'Well, there isn't any evidence to support his claims.' It's all boloney kabuki Washington DC theater."

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Acosta relayed his worries to Reid that Trump would further spread alleged conspiracies surrounding the integrity of U.S. elections, thereby casting preliminary doubt on the integrity of this year's midterms.

"He has never ever proven any of these things. He has lost the benefit of the doubt," he said.

"We should not be erring on the side of putting these things out there, and I totally agree with you that he's chumming the waters for not trusting the midterms."

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Adding to his critique, Acosta suggested the president could be forging a broader plot to create what he coined as a "52-car pileup" around the midterm elections.

"[He could] say, "See, I can't trust these results over here in this state or these results over here in that key district that may determine the control of the House. And Mike Johnson, maybe we just shouldn't seat a new Congress right away, and maybe we should just all go to court and have the courts untangle... [and] that's going to take until May or June of next year," he warned.

"That, to me, is a terrifying thought."

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Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

Acosta's warning came ahead of Trump's primetime address Thursday, where, speaking to the nation, the president renewed his focus on election integrity and alleged that China "worked to influence the results" of the 2020 presidential election, an accusation Beijing has denied.

Trump did not claim China changed votes or altered election results. Instead, he said Beijing engaged in an influence campaign aimed at shaping U.S. public perceptions.

Trump used the disclosures during Thursday's address to press Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, casting the newly released intelligence as evidence that lawmakers must tighten federal election rules before the midterms.

The act passed the House in February but stalled in the Senate in March, when a 53–47 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance it.

Ultimately, CBS News aired a special report that initially provided analysis before dipping into the speech minutes after Trump began speaking and cut away moments after Trump's attacks towards ABC and NBC. MS NOW carried the first 15 minutes of his speech live before dipping out to provide commentary. Fox News carried the speech in its entirety.

"The least that the networks can do at this point is not platform these lies, to not allow him to chum the waters with this nonsense," Acosta warned ahead of the address.

"And I think that it's a very serious moment for the television networks in this country."

Fox News' Greg Norman-Diamond, Joseph Wulfsohn and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.