Mike Johnson denounces New York Times for platforming Hamas-appointed mayor

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) denounced the New York Times for platforming Gaza City’s Hamas-appointed mayor.

An op-ed from Gaza City Mayor Yahya Sarraj was published in the outlet on Sunday titled “I Am Gaza City’s Mayor. Our Lives and Culture Are in Rubble.” Scrutiny was quickly applied to Sarraj, who was appointed mayor of Gaza City in 2019. Gaza has not had any elections since 2006, meaning he was appointed by an organization recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States. Johnson stepped in to add to the chorus criticizing the New York Times.

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“The New York Times provided a platform to a politician appointed by Hamas — the group designated by America as a foreign terrorist organization and responsible for the heinous October 7th massacre,” he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Does the NYT have no shame?”

Former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley also criticized the outlet, contrasting the episode with the controversy around Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-AR) op-ed calling for the U.S. military to restore order amid the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020.

“Remember when New York Times staff threw a tantrum over a Republican senator’s op-ed? We heard no complaints from NYT staff about publishing an op-ed by a Hamas-appointed mayor over Christmas,” Haley wrote. “That tells you everything you need to know about the state of our media.”

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The New York Times’s opinion editor at the time, James Bennet, was forced to resign after publishing Cotton’s op-ed following intense pushback from the public and employees at the outlet.

In his essay, Sarraj accuses Israel of attempting to destroy Gaza’s culture and “way of life.” He only briefly mentioned the episode that started the war, saying, “Israel began its war on Gaza in response to the deadly attack by Hamas.”