New York Times Reporter Falsely Labels Segregationist Senators Republicans

Appearing Thursday on CNN Newsroom, New York Times national political reporter Astead Herndon falsely labeled segregationist Democrat senators whom former Vice President Joe Biden praised for their “civility” Republicans.

The day prior, MSNBC host Kasie Hunt made the same error by misidentifying Sens. James Eastland (D-MS) and Herman Talmadge (D-GA). She has since issued a correction, while Herndon has yet to follow suit.

A partial transcript is as follows:

POPPY HARLOW: What have we learned in the last 24 hours about the frontrunner in the Democratic primary?

ASTEAD HERNDON: I think what we learned is similar to things that we’ve already known about the vice president. He has often praised what he called a bygone era of civility in the Senate and that sometimes comes with these uncomfortable figures, figures who are vocally open racist and segregationist. But Senator Biden had working relationships with them in the Senate and we also know that as we look forward toward the campaign from now that he’s going to be forced to try to change some of that language.

Our reporting yesterday was that some of his advisers, and even some of his supporters, were a little shocked with the way he was characterizing his relationships with those senators. And they’ve said, if you want to talk about bipartisanship, why not mention other Republicans — not the kind of the most controversial of them. And we know that the other Democrats are going to try to seize on this to create differences and stand out.