Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton blasted the New York Times for walking back a decision to publish his op-ed arguing President Trump invoke the Insurrection Act to stop riots.
During a Thursday interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum, Cotton defended his op-ed after the publication claimed it did not meet their standards and would decrease the number of opinion editorials it would publish.
“In the face of the woke mob of woke kids that are in their newsroom, they tucked tail, and they ran,” Cotton said. “They confessed and said that they were going to go to re-education camp, and they were going to cut the number of op-eds they run. And for that, I will apologize, or I will say to the world ‘you’re welcome’ for getting the New York Times to publish less of the garbage that you normally see in their pages.”
“The New York Times has run editorials by Vladimir Putin, Recep Erdogan, by the Taliban. No problem there. But run one editorial from Tom Cotton on a position that’s supported by 58% of the American people that we have a duty to protect our citizens’ lives and livelihoods? ‘Well, we are going to review our processes, and we’re going to cut the number of op-eds that we run.’ A child mob truly is in charge at the New York Times tonight.”
The New York-based publication declared it would be taking both short-term and long-term changes to change its editorial process after several journalists at the outlet protested Cotton’s op-ed, which urged Trump to use the military to stop criminal riots that have taken place amid protests over the death of George Floyd.
“We’ve examined the piece and the process leading up to its publication,” a New York Times spokesperson said in a statement. “This review made clear that a rushed editorial process led to the publication of an op-ed that did not meet our standards. As a result, we’re planning to examine both short term and long term changes, to include expanding our fact checking operation and reducing the number of op-eds we publish.”
