New York Times editorial editor Kathleen Kingsbury defended the paper against intense criticism over the timing of a Sunday editorial declaring former President Donald Trump “unfit to lead” just hours after the assassination attempt on him.
Kingsbury argued in his essay: Condemning political violence The scathing editorial was printed before Saturday’s assassination attempt on the leading Republican presidential candidate.
“The print edition of Sunday Opinion is prepared several days before it hits newsstands and the July 14th edition was completed and printed before Saturday night’s events,” she wrote.
He retracted his Sunday opinion about Trump’s candidacy. @Elon Musk/X
Kingsbury did not provide details about when the op-ed, titled “Donald Trump is Unfit to Leader,” was printed.
“There is no connection between our earlier decision to publish this editorial in print and Saturday’s incident. We would have changed our plans if we could have. (Indeed, we are postponing its online publication for the time being.)
The front-page opinion column of Sunday’s edition declared that Trump had “failed the test of leadership and betrayed America.”
In the article, the Times ran a “retrospective” on Trump’s performance during his first term and urged voters to “reject” him as a candidate.
The retrospective, which amounts to a collection of essays, was first published online Thursday and had already been commissioned to be replicated in the weekend’s print edition, Kingsbury said.
When the issue hit newsstands, the Times was heavily criticized by conservatives who reacted in disbelief that it had been published the day after the shooting.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of social media platform X and a Trump supporter, He blamed the newspapers. “A truly cold-hearted and despicable person,” he said.
