Anchor Jim Acosta says he is departing CNN

WASHINGTON

CNN anchor Jim Acosta said Tuesday that he is leaving the network he has been working with since 2007, which President Donald Trump called "good news."

"You may have seen some reports about me and the show, and after giving all of this some careful consideration and weighing an alternative time slot CNN offered me, I’ve decided to move on. I am grateful to CNN for the nearly 18 years I‘ve spent here doing the news," Acosta said at the end of his last program.

Acosta chose to leave CNN after turning down an offer from the network to shift his 10 a.m. show to midnight Eastern time -- a proposal that did not interest him, according to The Washington Post, citing a source familiar with the matter.

He said people often asked him whether the highlight of his career at CNN was covering Trump at the White House, but he said that moment came when he covered President Barack Obama's trip to Cuba in 2016 and had the chance to question then leader Raul Castro about the island's political prisoners.

"As the son of a Cuban refugee, I took home this lesson: It is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant," he added.

Acosta frequently confronted members of the Trump administration during its first term.

Trump called his departure "good news" and said Acosta is "a major loser."

"Wow, really good news! Jim Acosta, one of the worst and most dishonest reporters in journalistic history, a major sleazebag, has been relegated by CNN Fake News to the Midnight hour, ‘Death Valley,’ because of extraordinarily BAD RATINGS (and no talent!)," he said on his Truth Social platform.

"Word is that he wants to QUIT, and that would be even better. Jim is a major loser who will fail no matter where he ends up. Good luck Jim!" he wrote.