Congressman Lee Zeldin stands on stage during his impromptu speech before an alleged attack on him in Fairport, New York, United States, July 21, 2022. Ian Winner/Handout via REUTERS
NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!
Critics called a New York Times headline that made the news of Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin’s attacker released without bail more of a story about how the GOP is aggressively going after New York’s bail laws, ostensibly for political gain.
After the suspect who tried to maim and/or kill Rep. Zeldin, R.Y., during a campaign speech Thursday, was released from jail just hours later without bond, the New York Times ran an article headlined, “The Republican Party Attacks New York Bail Laws After Zeldin Attack Suspect Freed.”
Twitter users slammed the report, saying it was just another repeat of the “Republicans are lashing out” line of attack that left-wing journalists have used to smear conservatives as overzealous in their responses to political incidents.
The article’s text read: “An attempted assault on Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor of New York, ignited a heated debate over the state’s public safety laws on Friday, hours after a man accused of accosting the candidate at gunpoint was released without bail’.
ALLEGED LEE ZELDIN ATTEMPTED ASSAULT CHARGED WITH CRIME IMMEDIATELY RELEASED, JUST AS CONGRESSMAN PREDICTED
The piece added: “But he [Zeldin] and his allies argued Friday that the episode instinctively led to the need to beef up police and tighten bail laws in New York to make it easier for judges to detain people accused of certain crimes.
It continues to be heard that Zeldin and the Republicans are aggressively politicizing this attack on the congressman and spinning it for political gain. “Republicans wasted little time in arguing that the attack — and the release of Mr. Iakubonis — demonstrated the failure of the bail law enacted by Democrats in recent years. And they tried to use it to gain an advantage in the New York congressional race as well. “
Conservatives on Twitter seemed disgusted by the Times’ tone.
NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck chided the outlet, tweeting: “GOP attacks bail laws in New York.” I guess that’s the new pounce and catch?”
Dispatch managing editor Rachel Larimore shared Houck’s tweet on her page and added her own commentary, tweeting: “Good news everyone. The NYT appeared for a thesaurus.’
LEE ZELDIN SAYS BLACK COLLECTION TRAINING HELPED HIM TAKE OFF ATTACKER: ‘IT WAS PRETTY CRAZY’
Congressman Lee Zeldin, N.U., was attacked while campaigning for governor in Perrinton, N.Y., Thursday night when a man allegedly pulled out a sharp object. (Ian Winner)
Conservative pundit Mary Kathryn Hamm tweeted a fake headline mocking the publication. “Republicans are showing leniency to a dude who went after a Republican,” she wrote.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Florida Department of Health spokesman Jeremy Redfern took issue with the article, which referred to the attack on Zeldin as an “incident” in its subtitle. He wrote on Twitter: “The incident. So it wasn’t an attack on democracy?”
New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin was attacked by a gunman at a campaign stop Thursday night. (Zeldin Campaign)
Gabriel Hayes is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @gabrieljhays.
Add Comment