President Trump weighed in on the ongoing situation surrounding a New York Times story on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh Monday night, calling for mass resignations and declaring the paper of record “DEAD.”
“I call for the Resignation of everybody at The New York Times involved in the Kavanaugh SMEAR story, and while you’re at it, the Russian Witch Hunt Hoax, which is just as phony!” Trump wrote. “They’ve taken the Old Grey Lady and broken her down, destroyed her virtue and ruined her reputation …”
“She can never recover, and will never return to Greatness, under current Management. The Times is DEAD, long live The New York Times!” he concluded.
On Sunday, the Times added an editor’s note to a Saturday story detailing witness recollection of another purported incident of drunken sexual misconduct from Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his college days.
The update, which says the woman at the center of the story “does not recall the incident,” was the latest element of the piece’s publication to draw criticism.
First, the story was published in the Times’ Sunday Review and the news about another possible incident was buried in the 11th paragraph. Then, there was a tweet from the Opinion section’s account that advertised the article with, “Having a penis thrust in your face at a drunken dorm party may seem like harmless fun…”
The Times explained that the article was a book excerpt rather than a standalone reported piece, and that those pieces frequently run in the Sunday opinion section. The authors said in an interview on MSNBC on Monday that the element initially omitted had been removed by an editor who was seeking to protect the identity of the alleged victim.
Representatives for the Times did not immediately respond to requests for comment.