Cotton: NY Times Page Editor Forced Out by 'Woke Mob of Children'

Sen. Tom Cotton Monday said New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet was forced out by a "woke mob of children" within the newsroom. Bennet has quit his job amid outcry over the decision to run the senator's controversial opinion piece advocating for calling in active-duty troops to quell violent George Floyd protests.

"It turned into something like a struggle session from the Cultural Revolution in China, where the adults had to apologize for those who apparently run the New York Times newsroom, and now the opinion page editor had to resign," the Arkansas Republican said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends."

"This all goes back to the publisher and his unwillingness to stand up to a bunch of 20 and 30-year-olds who were raised on social justice seminars on our campuses," Cotton added. "They need to behave like grown-ups, not like children, who are confronted with an opinion that they don't like."

He also slammed Katie Kingsbury, a deputy editorial page editor, who has been assigned to oversee the editorial page through the 2020 election as a "far-left radical" who will "throw in, not stand up to, the woke mob of children at the New York Times who get triggered any time they hear a conservative opinion."

Cotton said the newspaper asked him to expand on his opinion about the need for President Donald Trump to use the Insurrection Act to call in troops after he'd discussed it on Fox News last week, and that the publisher of the New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger, had defended the decision to publish his guest column.

However, after Times employees demanded that it be taken down, a lengthy editorial disclaimer was added to Cotton's article.

Cotton warned that as a result, The Times has said it will reduce the number of opinion pieces it runs, so he wants to tell the world "you're welcome for reducing the amount of left-wing nonsense that you have to read in The New York Times' editorial pages."

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