[3] Acosta's father arrived in the U.S. at age 11 as a refugee from Santa María del Rosario,[4] Cuba, three weeks before the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In 1995, Acosta moved in front of the camera, becoming a reporter and substitute anchor at NBC affiliate WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, and remained in that job until 1998.

[8] At CBS News, Acosta covered the 2004 campaign of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, the Iraq War from Baghdad, and Hurricane Katrina.

[8][9] During the following year, Acosta covered the 2008 presidential campaigns of Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, frequently appearing as an anchor of CNN's weekend political program, Ballot Bowl.

[13] At a nationally televised news conference in November 2015, Acosta challenged President Obama on his administration's strategy for destroying the terrorist organization known as ISIS.

[17] At a nationally televised news conference in May 2016, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called Acosta "a real beauty" for his reporting.

[23] On August 2, 2018, Acosta asked the press secretary of the White House Sarah Huckabee Sanders if she agreed about CNN, but she did not directly answer the question, speaking about her own treatment by the media.

During the press conference, President Trump briefly responded to Jim Acosta’s question about immigration rhetoric and campaign ads, and then moved on to another journalist.

[26][27] Subsequently, Acosta's press pass, US Secret Service security credentials facilitating entry onto the White House grounds, was suspended "until further notice.

[39][40] Media law professor Jonathan Peters said that "a journalist has a first-amendment right of access to places closed to the public, but open generally to the press [...which] can't be denied arbitrarily or absent compelling reasons"[38] and free speech litigator Floyd Abrams said, "CNN might have reluctance to have a lawsuit titled 'CNN vs. Donald Trump.'

"[43][44][45][46] Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway described the clip as not altered but sped up, taking exception to what she believed the "overwrought description of this video as being doctored as if we put somebody else's arm in there.

"[47] On November 13, 2018, CNN and Acosta, through counsel Ted Boutrous and Ted Olson of Gibson Dunn, filed civil suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Trump, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, Deputy Chief of Staff/Director of Communications Bill Shine, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the U.S. Secret Service and its director, Randolph Alles, and an unnamed Secret Service agent, all in their official capacities.

[48][49][50] Amicus briefs were filed with the court in support of CNN's case, from journalistic entities whose editorial policies range across the political spectrum.

[51][52] The U.S. Department of Justice filed a brief arguing that First Amendment free speech rights do not "restrict the president's ability to determine the terms on which he does, or does not, engage with particular journalists.