'Pod Save America' host and NY Times reporter trade barbs in online spat over Harris campaign interview
Two prominent liberal media figures took swipes at each other on X in the aftermath of a bombshell podcast interview featuring Harris campaign officials talking about why they lost.
New York Times reporter Astead Herndon mocked the "Pod Save America" podcast on Tuesday following its interview with the Harris campaign staffers, irking podcast co-host and Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, who responded with a dig at the journalist.
"You ok? Have you not gotten enough credit for breaking the news that Joe Biden is old?" Favreau asked Astead on Tuesday evening.
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The Times reporter sparked the rebuke that afternoon by sharing an X post from "Pod Save America" announcing its latest episode, which featured guests from the Harris campaign — campaign senior adviser David Plouffe, campaign aide Stephanie Cutter, principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks and campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon — giving their postmortem on Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.
The podcast’s X post stated, "NEW POD. @DanPfeiffer sits down with @jomalleydillon, @DavidPlouffe, @QuentinFulks, and @StefCutter to talk about the campaign’s roadmap, the voters they most needed to win over, why they fell short in the end, and what Democrats should do differently next time."
Astead reshared the post and provided his own caption, writing, "A good ad for the importance of independent media."
The reporter’s dig hit at the reality that although Harris had plenty of favorable press coverage among legacy media outlets — compared to President-elect Trump — she still lost to him.
One of the widely cited reasons for Trump’s win was that the GOP candidate sat down for multiple major non-traditional media interviews, including one with "The Joe Rogan Experience" and the popular "Flagrant" podcast. These interviews gained millions of views and allowed Trump to appeal to younger demographics.
One of the complaints made by the Harris campaign officials during their recent interview was that podcasts and other non-traditional outlets were unwilling to interview. Cutter cited how the popular YouTube show "Hot Ones" refused to interview Harris because it did not want to get involved with politics.
Favreau took offense at Astead’s dig and fired back with his slam of The New York Times, mocking it for publishing multiple reports in the last few years on President Biden’s age being a major concern for voters.
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The New York Times reporter replied, "You’d think you’d have more shame, but I understand this is just like a game of sims for you."
Author Hank Green responded to the thread, admonishing Favreau for squabbling with the journalist. He wrote, "I have heard a lot of people say we need to stay out of this kind of non-constructive conflict and I feel like one of those people is you."
The former Obama staffer replied, "Fair! I’ll admit I was caught off guard by a NYT journalist I barely know attacking our media company but I should’ve known to engage with him."
Favreau and Green’s separate conversation continued, with the author remarking, "What I will say is the entire internet libosphere has spent the last few months blaming the New York Times for every bad thing that happens as if the times matters at all to the people who might vote Trump. It’s almost as if they’ve never been to Donald Trump’s TikTok account."
Favreau defended The Times, replying, "Oh, I know and think that brand of criticism of the NYT is mostly unwarranted and leveled toward an outlet whose audience is like 90% Dem. I like a lot of Astead's reporting too, and his pod."
"His QT [quotetweet] was about how the PSA [Pod Save America] interview with the Harris campaign is an ad for independent outlets like the NYT because it wasn't to his liking, I guess," the podcast host added.
The New York Times and "Pod Save America's" producer, CrookedMedia, did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.