Sen. Tom Cotton blasts New York Times for caving to 'woke child mob' of staffers over op-ed
By Ronn Blitzer | Fox News

“It cannot be the case that thousands of Americans can exercise their First Amendment right on the street, while dozens of Americans can’t exercise their First Amendment rights in churches,” he said. “It cannot be the case that you can be arrested for opening a business but not for looting one.”

Sen. Tom Cotton called out the New York Times for reversing their position on their decision to publish a recent op-ed of his, first allowing it to be published, then defending that decision after receiving backlash, and then claiming that it did not meet their standards after all.

Cotton’s piece, headlined “Send In the Troops,” supported the idea of using the military to help quell violent protests – an opinion apparently not appreciated by individuals on the Times’ staff. The Republican senator blamed complaints from the paper’s newsroom for the Times’ changing their stance.

“The New York Times editorial page editor and owner defended it in public statements but then they totally surrendered to a woke child mob from their own newsroom that apparently gets triggered if they’re presented with any opinion contrary to their own, as opposed to telling the woke children in their newsroom this is the workplace, not a social justice seminar on campus,” Cotton told Fox News’“Sunday Morning Futures.”

On Wednesday, editorial page editor James Bennet had tweeted and published a defense of his call to run Cotton’s piece, but the Times later issued a statement saying it “did not meet our standards.”

Cotton said the Times has not indicated how his op-ed was not up to par.

“They still haven’t identified any facts that are wrong in the op-ed, they haven’t identified what was so rushed about this process,” he said. “They’ve only prostrated themselves in front of their young children who are acting like children[.]”

Host Maria Bartiromo pointed out that the Times published an op-ed by the Taliban earlier this year, and in the past has published pieces by Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler.

“It just goes to show you the moral rot inside some of our media and academic institutions,” Cotton said, “that they don’t get outraged about the Taliban but they do get outraged about conservative opinion.”

Cotton then addressed the throngs that have gathered in protest following George Floyd’s death despite social distancing rules that states have put in place to combat the coronavirus pandemic. While businesses remained shuttered and religious services have been barred or restricted to small groups, protesters have marched en masse and unpunished.

Cotton claimed this means the era of lockdowns is over.

“It cannot be the case that thousands of Americans can exercise their First Amendment right on the street, while dozens of Americans can’t exercise their First Amendment rights in churches,” he said. “It cannot be the case that you can be arrested for opening a business but not for looting one.”