A New York Times editor, who was working on contract with the outlet, was reportedly fired after she tweeted that she had “chills” ahead of President Biden’s inauguration.
“Lauren Wolfe, who was an editor on contract for the NYT, has had her contract canceled after she tweeted what’s on the left,” Yashar Ali tweeted of the ousting, adding his reporting was based on two sources.
1. Some news…
Lauren Wolfe, who was an editor on contract for the NYT, has had her contract canceled after she tweeted what’s on the left.
Wolfe also tweeted what’s on the right, but deleted when she learned Biden chose to take his own plane.
Per two sources. pic.twitter.com/uaB0INZ1q8
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) January 22, 2021
Wolfe had tweeted on Tuesday: “Biden’s plane landing at Joint Field Andrews. I have chills.”
“The pettiness of the Trump admin for not sending a military plane to bring him to DC as is tradition is mortifying. Childish,” she wrote in another tweet that has since been deleted.
The New York Times did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment. Wolfe’s Twitter account also indicates she no longer works for the outlet.
The ousting comes after another editor for the New York Times, Cliff Levy, said on Twitter in November that the paper would “scrutinize the incoming administration just as thoroughly as we did the outgoing one.”
Core to the @nytimes mission: We will scrutinize the incoming administration just as thoroughly as we did the outgoing one.https://t.co/MD8p19UBoO https://t.co/bIuoiXJtt9
— Cliff Levy (@cliffordlevy) November 28, 2020
Critics pounced on Wolfe’s “chills” tweet as contradictory to Levy’s commitment to scrutinizing the Democratic administration the same as Trump’s, and some compared the comment to former MSNBC host Chris Matthews’s “thrill up the leg” comment about former President Barack Obama.
After the termination, some have voiced support for the editor on social media and urged the New York Times to rehire her. Wolfe addressed her tweet on Saturday, saying Biden’s inauguration was “a historic moment.”
“Actually, I said I had chills when Biden’s plane landed. Because after the months we’ve been through, it struck me hard that this is a historic moment. Because we were finally seeing a peaceful transfer of power,” Wolfe wrote in response to a tweet about her ousting.
Actually, I said I had chills when Biden’s plane landed. Because after the months we’ve been through, it struck me hard that this is a historic moment. Because we were finally seeing a peaceful transfer of power.
— Lauren Wolfe (@Wolfe321) January 23, 2021
The New York Times later said in a statement obtained by Joe Pompeo of Vanity Fair: “There’s a lot of inaccurate information circulating on Twitter. For privacy reasons we don’t get into the details of personnel matters but we can say that we didn’t end someone’s employment over a single tweet..We don’t plan to comment further.”
