The director of rapid response for former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign called CBS News senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge a “right-wing hack” in a tweet that was later deleted.
Andrew Bates criticized Herridge in the deleted tweet for her exclusive reporting obtaining acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell’s notification to Congress.
The notification contained a list of dozens of former Obama administration officials who reportedly asked for documents that led to the identity of former national security adviser Michael Flynn being “unmasked” from intelligence reports between the 2016 election and President Trump’s inauguration.
A copy of the list, later obtained by The Hill, includes Biden and former White House chief of staff Denis McDonough.
Bates reacted to the CBS report with a tweet saying, “SCOOP: Catherine Herridge is a partisan, rightwing hack who is a regular conduit for conservative media manipulation ploys because she agrees to publicize things before contacting the target to ask for comment,” which was later deleted.
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Attacking the press and attempting to intimidate independent media is a standard part of the authoritarian playbook,” Biden said in a statement earlier this month. “Efforts to undermine public confidence in the integrity of fact-based reporting violate our core American values and threaten our very system of government.”
“Journalists hold those in positions of authority accountable, investigate and document abuses of power, and expose the truth for everyone to see. In a Biden White House, there will be no bullying of the media by tweet,” the presumptive Democratic nominee said.
“That is why attacking the press and attempting to intimidate independent media is a standard part of the authoritarian playbook,” Biden added.
Some members of the media defended Herridge.
Trump has frequently railed against the news media, calling outlets like The New York Times and CNN “enemy of the people.”
Herridge joined CBS News in Oct. 2019 after 23 years at Fox News.
–This report was updated on May 14 at 10:35 a.m.