The New York Times said Wednesday a tweet referring to the senior Trump administration official behind a scathing anonymous opinion piece as a man was sent out by mistake.
“Senior opinion editors know the identity of the official, as we pointed out in our editor’s note,” the newspaper’s communications team wrote in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The tweet language was drafted by someone who is not aware of the author’s identity, including the gender, so the use of ‘he’ was an error.”
The New York Times, while promoting the article on social media, wrote that the mystery aide said “he and others are working to frustrate the president’s ‘misguided impulses.'”
[Related: 7 points on the anonymous New York Times ‘resistance’ op-ed]
In Opinion
In an anonymous Op-Ed, a senior Trump administration official says he and others are working to frustrate the president’s “misguided impulses.” https://t.co/qW1IoM3AYY pic.twitter.com/rCHnQfcRjG
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 5, 2018
The op-ed goes on to describe how some staffers are trying to undermine Trump’s agenda because they believe their first duty is to the country rather than the White House.
“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room,” the op-ed states. “We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”
Trump called the op-ed “gutless” Wednesday afternoon at an East Wing event for local law enforcement officers. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the unknown aide was a “coward” who should resign. She also implored the New York Times to issue an apology.
“We are disappointed, but not surprised, that the paper chose to publish this pathetic, reckless, and selfish op-ed,” she wrote in a statement. “This is a new low for the so-called ‘paper of record,’ and it should issue an apology, just as it did after the election for its disastrous coverage of the Trump campaign.”
