The New York Times Has Suspended Glenn Thrush Amid Sexual Misconduct Claims

Jenna Amatulli
Updated

An explosive Vox report published Monday revealed that New York Times White House correspondent Glenn Thrush has been suspended after being accused of acting inappropriately with several women.

“The behavior attributed to Glenn in this Vox story is very concerning and not in keeping with the standards and values of The New York Times,” Eileen Murphy, the senior vice president of communications for the Times, wrote in a statement to Vox. “We intend to fully investigate and while we do, Glenn will be suspended. We support his decision to enter a substance abuse program. In the meantime, we will not be commenting further.”

Vox’s Laura McGann says she interviewed 40 individuals while reporting the piece, in which she also describes an inappropriate interaction she said she had with Thrush five years ago, when they both worked for Politico.

Glenn Thrush records an episode of "The Press Pool" on July 20, 2016.  (Photo: Kirk Irwin via Getty Images)
Glenn Thrush records an episode of "The Press Pool" on July 20, 2016.  (Photo: Kirk Irwin via Getty Images)

McGann writes that she had been with Thrush and a few other reporters at a bar in Virginia. Toward the end of the evening, only she, Thrush and one other colleague remained. McGann says Thrush gave the other colleague a $20 bill as an incentive for her to get in a cab and leave. After the colleague left, McGann said Thrush did the following:

He slid into my side of the booth, blocking me in. I was wearing a skirt, and he put his hand on my thigh. He started kissing me. I pulled myself together and got out of there, shoving him on my way out.

McGann says Thrush sent her a vague but apologetic email the following morning, and that he did not specify why he was apologizing. She also said that later that same afternoon, she noticed Thrush in “deep conversation with a number of men,” after which she said she believed that “certain men in the newsroom... started to look at me differently.”

While interviewing one of those men for the new Vox story, McGann learned that this seemed to be a correct reading of the situation: The man said Thrush had relayed a story in which McGann had come onto him and he’d rebuffed the advances.

“The source said that Thrush frequently told versions of this story with different young women as the subject,” McGann writes. “He would talk up a night out drinking with a young attractive woman, usually a journalist. Then he’d claim that she came onto him. In his version of these stories, Thrush was the responsible grown-up who made sure nothing happened.”

McGann added that the entire ordeal with Thrush and subsequent feelings had made her feel as though she shouldn’t be in journalism and that she “had brought this all on myself.”

The Vox report cites several other accounts from women who said Thrush kissed and/or groped them when they didn’t want him to, as well as one who said Thrush came inside her home after she’d been drinking and he offered her a ride. McGann writes that the women she spoke to described feeling “scared, violated, ashamed, weirded out” and that she was (and currently still is) angry.

Thrush said in a statement emailed to McGann over the weekend that he apologizes “to any woman who felt uncomfortable in my presence, and for any situation where I behaved inappropriately. Any behavior that makes a woman feel disrespected or uncomfortable is unacceptable.”

Glenn Thrush works in the briefing room after being excluded from a gaggle at the White House on Feb. 24.  (Photo: Yuri Gripas / Reuters)
Glenn Thrush works in the briefing room after being excluded from a gaggle at the White House on Feb. 24.  (Photo: Yuri Gripas / Reuters)

Thrush, 50, is a well-known journalist. Bobby Moynihan has repeatedly portrayed him in “Saturday Night Live” sketches depicting the White House briefing room.

Alongside fellow New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman, Thrush is currently writing a book about President Donald Trump for Random House.

Responding to the allegations against Thrush, Random House told HuffPost: “This matter recently came to our attention and we are looking at it closely and seriously.”

You can read the entire report on Vox here.

Also on HuffPost

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Risa

"President-elect Donald Trump's victory represents the justification of sexism and institutionalized rape culture by millions of Americans. As a survivor, I am passionate about protecting human rights for all people, and I stand in solidarity with and fight for those negatively affected under the Trump administration."
"President-elect Donald Trump's victory represents the justification of sexism and institutionalized rape culture by millions of Americans. As a survivor, I am passionate about protecting human rights for all people, and I stand in solidarity with and fight for those negatively affected under the Trump administration."

Cassie

"The results of this election and [Donald Trump's] entire campaign left me feeling devastated and betrayed. It hurts, and I spent most of the following days on an emotional rollercoaster of pain that took a toll on my mental health. It’s different for a survivor, and it’s hard to explain to others what it feels like. We try so hard to get to a place where we can become activists and disrupt rape culture, but when a presidential candidate is accused of rape and was still even being considered for president shows just how strong rape culture is in our society."

Jennifer

"Having a sexual predator [elected to the highest] office has, at the very least, made me uncomfortable. I've become uncomfortable to a greater extent with the rape culture that we live in."
"Having a sexual predator [elected to the highest] office has, at the very least, made me uncomfortable. I've become uncomfortable to a greater extent with the rape culture that we live in."

Jacqueline

"Having an accused sexual predator as a president instills more fear in me than I ever thought I was ever capable of feeling. I feel that it may be perceived by some individuals as having the right to assault another person without any thought of the consequences because it is the kind of example our leader has set for us."
"Having an accused sexual predator as a president instills more fear in me than I ever thought I was ever capable of feeling. I feel that it may be perceived by some individuals as having the right to assault another person without any thought of the consequences because it is the kind of example our leader has set for us."

Sarah

"While the physical pain [my rapist] inflicted on me was unforgivable, the true emotional toll was the silence of my colleagues, the silence of my family, and the silence of my friends."
"While the physical pain [my rapist] inflicted on me was unforgivable, the true emotional toll was the silence of my colleagues, the silence of my family, and the silence of my friends."

Alexis

"As a survivor, when I heard that Donald Trump won the election I felt that my country betrayed me. Electing an accused sexual predator to be the leader and image of our country means supporting rape culture. It means that there are a lot of people in this nation that don’t support victims and survivors of gender based violence, and that’s not OK."

Megan

As a survivor of domestic abuse, seeing another woman’s abuser as the leader of our country is discouraging. I can see how Trump makes many survivors feel silenced. However, the election has motivated me to speak even louder to stand with fellow survivors of gender-based violence and never stop fighting for the prevention of these kinds of abuse.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.