The Senator doubled down after lashing out at a reporter, and the internet is responding accordingly.
Sen. Martha McSally was the subject of swift backlash after lashing out at CNN senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju on Thursday. She incited further criticism by using the controversy to solicit donations.
“Contribute $35 or more to help her fight back against liberal hacks and get this shirt,” reads the donation page for McSally’s election campaign. The shirt being offered is decorated with the Senator’s words to Raju: “You’re a liberal hack, buddy.”
Response to McSally’s comments have been largely negative. CNN issued a statement calling her actions “extremely unbecoming for a U.S. senator to sink to this level and treat a member of the press this way for simply doing his job.” By Friday morning, #McSallyIsAHack became one of the top hashtags trending on Twitter.
Rep. Debbie Lesko R-Ariz., defended McSally, calling it a “smart move.”
“The same guy misrepresented what I was saying recently,” Lesko tweeted. “And then it got picked up and repeated by other media.”
President Donald Trump’s campaign also praised McSally’s actions, tweeting a video of the interaction with the caption, “THIS is how you handle fake news!” The post has received nearly 20,000 likes and 6,000 retweets.
Mark Kelly, who is running against McSally for her seat in the Senate, has not weighed in on his rival’s comments.
Camaron Stevenson Camaron is the Founding Editor and Chief Political Correspondent for The Copper Courier, and has worked as a journalist in Phoenix for over a decade. He also teaches multimedia journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
