James Bennet, the editorial page editor at The New York Times, resigned Sunday in response to outrage over an opinion piece written last week by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), which called on President Trump to invoke the "venerable" Insurrection Act to send the military to U.S. cities so they could "disperse, detain, and ultimately deter lawbreakers."
The essay was published online Wednesday night, and it almost immediately drew ire from readers and Times staffers alike, with many arguing it endangered black employees. An internal review found that the op-ed shouldn't have been published the way it was — the headline "Send in the Troops" was "incendiary and should not have been used," and Cotton made sweeping statements accusing "left-wing radicals like antifa" of infiltrating George Floyd protests, despite scant evidence.
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