
New York Times White House correspondent Glenn Thrush announced his decision to delete his Twitter account, calling the social media mechanism "too much of a distraction."
"Hey folks -- I've decided to delete my Twitter account at midnight. Too much of a distraction. DM me for contact info. Thanks for reading!" Thrush wrote to his 350,000-plus followers.
Hey folks -- I've decided to delete my Twitter account at midnight. Too much of a distraction. DM me for contact info. Thanks for reading!
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 18, 2017
Thrush has gained national exposure since President Trump was elected, which has included jumping from Politico to The New York Times in January and signing with MSNBC as a contributor.
Thrush was at the center of controversy last October after a WikiLeaks email dump showed the then-senior Politico reporter allowing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonBiden hires Clinton, O'Rourke alum as campaign's digital director Trump neck and neck with top 2020 Democrats in Wisconsin: poll Clinton tweets impeachment website, encourages voters to 'see the evidence for themselves' MORE's campaign chairman to check his work before publication.
“Because I have become a hack I will send u the whole section that pertains to u,” then-Politico senior White House reporter Thrush wrote to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Thrush also asked Podesta to keep the matter between them.“
“Please don’t share or tell anyone I did this Tell me if I f---ed up anything.”
Podesta responded that he saw “no problem here.”
It’s not uncommon in Washington for reporters to send materials to sources for fact-checking. But the language Thrush used was particularly embarrassing and led to a number of jabs at his expense on social media.