In a series of tweets, freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrat from New York, lashed out at The New York Times on Sunday in response to an article published about President Donald Trump’s former communications director Hope Hicks, The Hill reports.
The article has been widely met with scorn online, with critics pointing out that the article is framed in an overly romanticized fashion when it is essentially the story of a woman choosing whether or not to defy a congressional subpoena. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler has subpoenaed Hicks to testify before the committee as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the Trump administration.
“What gets me is news breaks that this woman is weighing committing a crime before Congress & it’s getting framed by the NYT as some Lifetime drama called ‘Hope’s Choice,’” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted , sharing the post from @nytpolitics.
“This is a fmr admin official considering participating in a coverup led by the President. Treat her equally.”
Subpoenas issued by House Democrats have been at the center of an escalating feud between the Trump administration and the various congressional committees attempting to fulfill their oversight duties of the executive branch, including the president himself.
Trump, for example, ordered former White House counsel Don McGahn not to comply with a similar subpoena earlier this month. McGahn acquiesced, not showing up for the hearing as scheduled and prompting threats from Nadler to hold the attorney in contempt of Congress.
Hope Hicks, one of the best-known but least visible former members of President Trump’s White House staff, is facing an existential question: whether to comply with a congressional subpoena https://t.co/8NXpfQvxQL pic.twitter.com/L7aWVMsIdq
— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) May 24, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez, in addition to calling out The New York Times for the dramatic framing of the Hicks question, also pointed out how much differently the media treats more ordinary citizens accused of much lesser crimes, particularly when it comes to people of color.
“Yup. Where’s the ‘no angel’ take now?” she asked in another tweet , this one in response to a post from Soledad O’Brien.
“In the immediate aftermath of shootings, media routinely post menacing photos of people-of-color victims + dredge up any questionable thing they’d ever done. But when Hope Hicks considers not complying w a subpoena, it’s glamour shot time.”
O’Brien had said that the Hicks coverage was an example of bias at The New York Times , pointing out that their article featured what was essentially a glamor shot and how the content of the piece did not treat non-compliance with the subpoena ask the serious crime that it is.
Many others on social media have taken up a similar point of view, with The New York Times facing intense criticism from their readership as a result. The article and the social media posts promoting it remain available.