Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the New York Times Wednesday for the way they handled an op-ed it published from Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.
“One of our nation’s most storied newspapers just had its intellectual independence challenged by an angry mob and they folded like a house of cards,” McConnell said during a speech on the Senate floor, according to Politico. “A jury of people on Twitter indicted them as accessories to a thought crime and instead of telling them to go take a hike, the paper pleaded guilty and begged for mercy.”
The comments come as Cotton called for the U.S. military to be dispatched to “restore order” in his op-ed published last Wednesday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) leaves the US Senate floor at the US Capitol March 25, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by ALEX EDELMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
McConnell went on to mention some of the other op-eds the Times has published: “One week ago, the Gray Lady finally met her match. Vladimir Putin? No problem. Iranian propaganda? Sure. But nothing, nothing could have prepared them for 800 words from the junior Senator for Arkansas,” McConnell said. (RELATED: McConnell Says Impeachment ‘Diverted’ Government From Focusing On Coronavirus)
Since, Cotton has bashed the New York Times, saying Thursday that his work “far exceeds their standards” after criticism from many staffers and public figures on Twitter over the decision to publish his op-ed. (RELATED: ‘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)
The New York Times apologized for publishing Cotton’s op-ed, saying “that did not meet our standards.”