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New York Times op-ed columnist Bret Stephens has created a social media firestorm after emailing George Washington University associate professor Dave Karpf and the university’s provost this week to complain about Karpf’s tweet calling Stephens a "bedbug."
In the wake of The New York Times’ office being infested by bedbugs, Karpf poked fun at Stephens on social media.
“The bedbugs are a metaphor. The bedbugs are Bret Stephens,” he posted in jest.
In the email to Karpf and the university’s provost office, Stephens said that he is “often amazed about the things supposedly decent people are prepared to say about other people - people they’ve never met - on Twitter. I think you set a new standard.”
“I would welcome the opportunity for you to come to my home, meet my wife and kids, talk to us for a few minutes, and then call me a ‘bedbug’ to my face,” Stephens continued. “That would take some genuine courage and intellectual integrity on your part. I promise to be courteous no matter what you have to say.”
The move drew the ire of Trump and Ocasio-Cortez, a 2007 Yorktown High School graduate.
“Imagine being on Twitter and having the worst thing you’re called in a given day is 'bedbug,' " Ocasio-Cortez said. "My own friends roast me harder than that.
“For real though, it is pretty concerning that this guy abused his position to try to get someone fired over something so insignificant - esp after creating a career defending vile language as a sacred freedom & deriding people organizing for basic human dignity as ‘snowflakes.’ "
The commander-in-chief followed up the following morning with a tweet of his own.
“The infestation of bedbugs at The New York Times office” @OANN was perhaps brought in by lightweight journalist Bret Stephens, a Conservative who does anything that his bosses at the paper tell him to do! He is now quitting Twitter after being called a ‘bedbug.’ Tough guy!”
Stephens has since shut down his Twitter account, though he sent out one last message.
“Twitter is a sewer," he wrote. "It brings out the worst in humanity. I sincerely apologize for any part I’ve played in making it worse, and to anyone I’ve ever hurt. Thanks to all of my followers, but I’m deactivating this account.”
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