Acosta: Trump "Sounding Angrier And More Bitter," Obama "Getting Under The President's Skin"

CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta reported President Trump is getting angrier and more bitter as a candidate on the campaign trail in a segment with Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday. Earlier on CNN, Acosta said the campaign has been a journey into Trump's "grievance-filled psyche" as he attacks "well-respected journalist" Kristen Welker of NBC News. Acosta also said Trump is "laying the groundwork" to blame the virus in case he loses, citing "complaints" to rally-goers in Pennslyvania that he didn't "have to" come and campaign there. "You know the president is going to be very, very angry at the former president of the United States. clearly Barack Obama must have gotten under his skin," CNN's Wolf Blitzer said to Acosta. "[Obama] suggested that the current president has a bank account in Communist China and may have actually paid more income tax to the Communist Chinese than he has paid income tax here in the United States." "You know that's going to get under the skin of President Trump," Blitzer added. "I think that was one of the highlights of Barack Obama's speech, when he said can you imagine if I had a secret Chinese bank account they would call me Beijing Barry," Acosta said. "I mean, there is no person on the face of the earth who gets under Donald Trump's skin like Barack Obama. And that is why you've seen President Trump over the last four years try to undo just about anything that had President Obama's name on it, namely Obamacare." "I've talked to people inside the Trump campaign, people inside the White House," he said. "Barack Obama's obviously the one surrogate they don't want to see very much of out on the campaign trail. He just has a way of getting under President Trump's skin like nobody else." "You just get a sense, Wolf, day after day after day as we're getting closer to election day, the president of the United States is sounding angrier and more bitter," Acosta said. "He's lashing out at Dr. Anthony Fauci. He's lashing out at debate moderators, lashing out at the media. And now Barack Obama's going to be one more thing getting under the president's skin at this critical stage of the campaign, Wolf." <blockquote>ACOSTA: Wolf, I think just to echo what Van Jones was saying, there was also I think a base strategy in some of what Barack Obama was talking about there, when he was saying don't believe these polls, these polls weren't right the last time around, we saw the polls, it looked like things were going to work out for Hillary Clinton and then Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. And by the way, that echoes what the Biden campaign has been saying. They have been saying don't believe the polls. Obviously, we believe the polls in our industry. But obviously, both campaigns don't want to take anything for granted. And I think one other thing we should point out, Wolf, I've talked to people inside the Trump campaign, people inside the White House. Barack Obama's obviously the one surrogate they don't want to see very much of out on the campaign trail. He just has a way of getting under President Trump's skin like nobody else, and I imagine at this event that the president will be at later on this evening we'll see a reflection of that, Wolf. ... You just get a sense, Wolf, day after day after day as we're getting closer to election day, the president of the United States is sounding angrier and more bitter. He's lashing out at Dr. Anthony Fauci. He's lashing out at debate moderators, lashing out at the media. And now Barack Obama's going to be one more thing getting under the president's skin at this critical stage of the campaign, Wolf. </blockquote>