Sen. Chuck Schumer’s team slammed Politico after the outlet corrected an erroneous report that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor met with top Democrats on Friday.
It turned out that the woman in question was not Sotomayor, but Iris Weinshall, Schumer‘s wife. A spokesperson for Schumer confirmed the mistake on Twitter and criticized Politico for not contacting him prior to publication.
“If anyone from playbook or Politico had reached out before they printed it, I could have saved them the embarrassment. #reporting,” Justin Goodman, Schumer’s communications director, tweeted in response to the correction.
LIBERAL SUPREME COURT JUSTICES SPREAD COVID-19 MISINFORMATION
Politico corrected the story Saturday and expressed its “regret” for the error.
“This morning’s Playbook had a photo of a Friday dinner at Le Diplomate, and misidentified Iris [Weinshall], the majority leader’s wife, as Sonia Sotomayor,” Politico said in a tweet. “Our tipster got it wrong, but we should have double checked. We deeply regret the error.”
The outlet initially said in its Politico Playbook newsletter that Sotomayor attended a dinner at Le Diplomate with Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and Sen. Dick Durbin. The picture Politico shared showed the back of Weinshall’s head, and her face was not visible.
Supreme Court justices generally try to avoid the appearance of favoring one political party over the other but have on occasion been spotted with partisan leaders. In 2018, President Donald Trump wished Justice Clarence Thomas a happy birthday, tweeting a picture of the two of them sitting in the Oval Office.
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Sotomayor, who attended Friday’s Supreme Court hearings remotely from her chambers but was not sick, sparked controversy during one hearing when she said that over 100,000 children were in “serious condition” and on ventilators. While hospitalizations in children are rising, the justice, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, received criticism for the claim because fewer than 5,000 minors were hospitalized with COVID-19, according to CNN’s Jake Tapper.
In contrast, CNN’s Jake Tapper called out the liberal justice. “That’s just not true,” he said of her claims about child hospitalizations as a graph was shown. “There are fewer than 5,000 minors hospitalized with COVID right now.” pic.twitter.com/0qRwHVMfb1
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 8, 2022
