US

Washington Post Corrects Jennifer Rubin Column Falsely Accusing McConnell Of Delaying Coronavirus Vote

The Washington Post | Circa June 2011 | By Daniel X. O'Neil from USA (Washington, DC, June 2011: The Washington Post) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Washington Post on Wednesday corrected a column by opinion writer Jennifer Rubin, who falsely accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of delaying a vote on the House’s coronavirus bill.

“The failure to take an immediate vote on the House’s relief package last week was emblematic of the sloth and irresponsibility of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.),” Rubin wrote in her column Tuesday, accusing the Senate of “fiddling while Rome burns.”

But that wasn’t accurate.

The Senate only received the House’s coronavirus relief bill Tuesday — not last week, as Rubin said.

Does @JRubinBlogger or the Post editorial page have editors? How does one of Washington’s biggest newspapers let egregious errors like this make it to publication?

The House’s relief package made it to the Senate *today.* This deserves a correction. https://t.co/VIFddn67z9 pic.twitter.com/mkkcjFVKOR

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) March 18, 2020

WaPo added a correction atop the column Wednesday after a backlash.

“An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) delayed a vote on the House’s coronavirus relief package,” the correction reads.

“In fact, McConnell vowed to move at ‘warp speed’ on the bill and it was only delayed due to a demand from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) for an amendment on the bill. This version has been updated.”

Rubin didn’t immediately return the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.