NYT reporter, Dem senator go back-and-forth on Scaramucci coverage

The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) engaged in a back-and-forth discussion on Twitter Friday about media coverage of new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

“Mooch isn’t a comms professional. But his messaging is smooth and and level-headed,” read Haberman’s initial tweet, which sparked Schatz to reply.

Mooch isn’t a comms professional. But his messaging is smooth and and level-headed.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 21, 2017

“I don’t know if this is true or not but given what’s happening to the country this strikes me as not the point,” Schatz said.

I don’t know if this is true or not but given what’s happening to the country this strikes me as not the point. https://t.co/bq4uWtmM6Y

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) July 21, 2017

{mosads}The two then exchanged several messages about the tone of media coverage of Scaramucci’s first appearance in the White House briefing room.

Ditto to this tweet https://t.co/337Z2gY99H

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 21, 2017

And by ditto I don’t mean “that’s not the point.” I mean reporters are reporting, and multiple tweets can exist @brianschatz

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 21, 2017

You are excellent and a must read. But I think given this crisis, his smooth delivery shouldn’t make cut of things that get tweeted about. https://t.co/CWtiMw7TOB

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) July 21, 2017

Our job is to report. Sorry you think otherwise. spicer snarl from podium was part of issue. Early outings notable https://t.co/Ty8gqtQM9t

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 21, 2017

Haberman was one of The Times’s reporters who interviewed President Trump earlier this week. Trump said in that interview that he wouldn’t have chosen Jeff Sessions as his attorney general if he knew he would recuse himself from the investigation into Russian election interference.

“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Trump said in the interview.

Schatz also responded to the interview in a series of tweets, calling on reporters to ask Trump basic questions about healthcare policy after Trump appeared to claim in the interview with the Times that people can obtain health insurance for $12 a year.