For some staffers at CNN, there’s the question as to why the Acosta incident is appropriate, given the suspension in 2015 for essentially the same behavior. The answer among CNN sources is that the network has a very different kind of relationship with the administration: President Trump was recently said to have reveled in the ouster of three CNN employees over a retracted Russia story, and he tweeted a GIF of him “wrestling” the network.

“This stuff never happens in a vacuum,” said one CNN source.

“Times are very different” from 2015, said a CNN TV executive. “Acosta posed a question (albeit a loaded one) rather than making an affirmative statement.”