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‘It Far Exceeds Their Standards’: Tom Cotton Criticizes NYT For Apologizing ‘In The Face Of The Woke Mob Of Woke Kids’ Over His Op-Ed

Tom Cotton flamed the NYT for apologizing after publishing his op-ed. (Screenshot Twitter the Daily Caller)

Screenshot Twitter the Daily Caller

Shelby Talcott Senior White House Correspondent
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Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton bashed the New York Times on Thursday, saying that his work “far exceeds their standards” after major controversy erupted at the newspaper over the decision to publish his op-ed.

Cotton called for the U.S. military to be dispatched to “restore order” amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd in his op-ed published Wednesday. President Donald Trump first vowed to deploy the U.S. military if states did not call in the National Guard. (RELATED: NYT Writes Article About Its Own Employees Revolting Against The NYT’s Decision To Publish Tom Cotton’s Op-Ed)

Controversy erupted at the NYT following the op-ed’s publication, with numerous staffers openly revolting against the decision. Many posted the same phrase Wednesday evening on Twitter: “Running this puts Black @NYTimes staff in danger.” The NYT eventually issued an apology for the op-ed Thursday and Cotton responded to all of the controversy during an interview on Fox News’ “The Story With Martha MacCallum.”

“My op-ed doesn’t meet the New York Times standards,” Cotton began. “It far exceeds their standards which are normally full of left-wing sophomoric drivel. And I find it amazing that in the last 24 hours, the editor of the New York Times and the publisher of the New York Times have both defended their decision to publish this op-ed, but in the face of the woke mob of woke kids that are in their newsroom, they tucked tail and they ran.”

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“They confessed and said they were gonna go into re-education camp and they were gonna 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 run less of the garbage that you normally see in their pages,” Cotton continued.

NYT publisher A.G. Sulzberger defended the publication’s decision to run with Cotton’s op-ed in an internal memo obtained by CNN’s Oliver Darcy. Sulzberger acknowledged that many disagreed with the decision, but added that the piece was published in the “spirit” of “the principle of openness to a range of opinions.”

NYT’s editorial page editor James Bennett also defended publishing the piece Wednesday evening on Twitter. Following both his and Sulzberger’s comments, the publication backtracked and apologized.

“We’ve examined the piece and the process leading up to its publication,” a NYT spokeswoman said according to NYT media reporter Marc Tracy. “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.”

Cotton continued criticize the NYT on Twitter after appearing Thursday evening on Fox News.

“How is everyone at the @nytimes doing tonight?” he began. Cotton continued on to call the NYT out after he “commended” their “courage for not giving in to the woke, mindless liberal mob.”

The Arkansas senator then wondered if the publication needed “an all-staff meeting to repent after they published an editorial from the Taliban” and further asked if publishing an op-ed about how pedophelia should not be a crime stirred any controversy. He also laughed at an article published by Slate that found his op-ed “netted the Times the highest ever number of cancellations in a single hour.”

“Suggest @nytimes staff bring some popcorn to this town-hall meeting. The woke mob is VERY ANGRY—be prepared to repent!” Cotton added in yet another tweet which included a screenshot showing that the publication plans to have a town hall meeting following the public debacle.