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Politico’s lengthy report on a “cold war” between President Joe Biden and the New York Times has earned some major pushback from the latter.
Among the splashy revelations in Thursday’s Politico report is the suggestion that Times publisher AG Sulzberger has “quietly” encouraged negative stories about Biden, including on his age and poll numbers, as retaliation over the president not agreeing to an interview. The claim was cited to an unnamed Times reporter.
The Times responded to the allegation with a lengthy statement on Thursday, first reported on by Semafor’s Max Tani.
“For anyone who understands the role of free press in a democracy, it should be troubling that the President has so actively and effectively avoided questions from independent journalists over the course of his term,” the statement from a spokesperson for the paper reads.
According to Politico’s reporting, Sulzberger has been so focused on landing an interview with Biden that he even took time out of an off-the-record meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris to inquire as to why the paper was not getting a yes answer for the sit-down. The Times statement pushes back on this description, instead saying Sulzberger has stressed in conversations with Harris and others that Biden would be setting a “dangerous precedent” by breaking tradition and not doing an interview with the Times. The Times’s statement warns Biden not sitting for an interview would be avoiding “scrutiny” and “accountability.”
The statement denies any negative coverage being pushed as retaliation against the president.
“The notion that any line of coverage has been ordered up or or encouraged in retaliation for declining an interview, or any other reason, is outrageous and untrue,” it reads.
New York Times reporters Jonathan Swan and Peter Baker have also pushed back against Politico’s reporting on Sulzberger in separate X, formerly Twitter, posts.
“AG wants us to cover this president — and every president — as fully, fairly and aggressively as we can because that’s our role. That’s true regardless of whether we get an interview. AG takes our responsibility very seriously and is a complete straight shooter,” Baker wrote.
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