The hypocrisy of the Trump White House team, as revealed by this Vox report, should be really shocking; sadly it is what we now expect from this administration.

Donald Trump continued his war of words with CNN reporter Jim Acosta at a recent press conference; the reporter had the temerity to ask questions! Finally, a female intern was dispatched to take Jim Acosta's microphone from him; Jim naturally resisted. The poor Mr. Acosta was subsequently accused of "laying hands" on the intern. To support this fake news narrative, press secretary Sarah Sanders shared an altered video that appears to have originated with far-right conspiracy site Infowars (who are banned by most social media). I can hear you all thinking ".., but the Trump administration are the ones always accusing everyone else of fake news - they wouldn't dare do it themselves!"

Well, they do dare to do so, and we should not stand for it.

Let's look, for a moment at the legal arguments:

• Taking the microphone (property of CNN) from Jim Acosta would have been theft. CNN should file criminal charges for attempted theft.
• People who are assaulted, as was Jim Acosta by the intern, are allowed to use proportional force to defend themselves. The fact that the victim in this case restrained himself is a credit to both Mr. Acosta and CNN Nevertheless, assault charges could be laid.
• The false narrative, and the publishing of faked supporting evidence, by the White House. is both libel and slander, and amounts to defamation of character. Being president grants Donald Trump immunity to many charges, but that doesn't apply to Sarah Sanders and other White House staff, and they should be sued.

As Trevor Noah said on The Daily Show, the White House believes that touching a woman on the arm is inappropriate; he should have grabbed her by her private parts, which the president clearly believes is OK (since he boasted about it).