A former New York Times opinion columnist mocked the age of a younger reporter and declared that he “won’t be lectured by a child” during a televised dustup over a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday.
Charles Blow, 55, delivered the insult during a heated exchange with New York Post financial correspondent Lydia Moynihan, 31, as they debated the performance of Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next director of national intelligence.
“I have been in journalism for a very long time. In fact, I came to the New York Times when you — the year that you were born,” Blow said. “So I would choose — I suggest that you choose a lane that is your own and stay in it, and don’t lecture me because I won’t be lectured by a child.”
Blow’s remarks came after CNN host Abby Phillip asked Moynihan about Clayton’s refusal to directly answer a question from Georgia’s Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff about who won the 2020 presidential election that Trump falsely claims was “rigged” against him.
“He did mince words, and I would like him to just say yes and put an end to the discussion, but there’s a lot of theatrics to these kind of hearings,” Moynihan said. “Jon Ossoff got his soundbite, and Republicans kind of do the same thing. They love to ask, ‘What is a woman?’ And Ketanji Brown Jackson couldn’t answer. A lot of people still can’t answer that question. So to me, it’s theatrics.”
As another panelist began speaking, Blow addressed Moynihan, saying: “Do you acknowledge that Joe Biden won the election?”
When she answered, “Yeah.” Blow countered: “So you can do it just now, but he couldn’t do it?” according to a transcript posted by Mediaite.
Moynihan then accused Blow of “trying to get a social media clip with a gotcha” and added: “I answered your question already, and I’m also not here to answer you.”
Blow, who quit The Times last year and is now an independent journalist and incoming Harvard University resident fellow, didn’t immediately return an inquiry from The Independent on Thursday.
But on his Substack account, Blow posted a video clip of the exchange which he said Moynihan was “trying to avoid but ironically created.”
Blow also said that “she thought she was *turning it* when she delivered that weak line that she’d been practicing in the mirror all afternoon.”
“Wrong move. The difference between me and you, ma’am, is age, experience, and a wicked tongue as sharp as a knife,” he wrote. “I don’t need to practice a line. I’m a seasoned gatherer. I do this as easily as I breathe.”
Moynihan didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry from The Independent but reposted a clip of the exchange on social media, adding: “Honesty flattered he thinks I look that young?!”
A Post spokesperson declined to comment and referred The Independent to Moynihan’s social media statement.
Representatives of CNN and Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, which named Blow its Langston Hughes fellow for the fall 2027 term, didn’t immediately return inquiries from The Independent.
