NYT's DOJ reporter tweets Trump-supporters are 'enemies of the state' and then deletes tweet

The New York Times' Justice Department beat report Katie Benner, who formerly wrote for a publication of the Chinese Communist Party, is the latest journalist to incautiously out herself on Twitter as a dangerous radical who delegitimizes half the electorate, Trump-supporters.  Here is the series of tweets that she deleted:

Today's #January6SelectCommittiee underscores the America's current essential natsec dilemma: Work to combat legitimate national security threats now entails calling a current politician's supporters enemies of the state

As Americans, we believe that state power should not be used to work against a political figure or a political party. But what happens if a politician seems to threaten the state? If the politician continues to do so out of office and his entire party supports that threat?

This dilemma was unresolved by the Russia probe and 2 impeachments. With many Republicans denying the reality of the Jan. 6 attack, I doubt the #January6thCommittee will resolve it either. That leaves it up to voters, making even more essential free, fair access to the polls.


Screen grabs via Fox News.

About eight hours later, she deleted the tweets and offered a nonsense explanation:

The problem was that they all too clearly revealed her mentality.

Unfortunately for Benner, that bell can't be un-rung.  Plenty of people noticed, and screen grabs live forever.


Katie Benner at the 2018 Pulitzer awards.
Photo credit: Andrew Lih CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Sean Davis speculated that she is reflecting the views of the FBI and DOJ officials with whom she works as a reporter:

Glenn Greenwald noted that she is supposedly a "news" reporter, not an editorial opinion-writer (as if there is any distinction anymore at the NYT):

If the New York Times top editors didn't share her totalitarian views on delegitimizing half the electorate, they would fire her.  She is incapable of fairly writing about the issues she covers at the DOJ, including Russiagate, 1/6, and Impeachment.  But my guess is that she has a great future there.

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