A Republican senator apologized for siccing security on a reporter, but it came too late to avoid being skewered online.
On Thursday, Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) called for security and ran away after TMZ DC co-managing editor Charlie Cotton pressed him with questions about the absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
"Do you think Mitch McConnell needs to do more to prove his health?" Cotton asked. Ricketts answered, saying McConnell, who's been out of the public eye since mid-June, deserves "the time he needs." Cotton pressed him with a follow-up question, but Ricketts called out for the Capitol Police to "Stop him!"
"I reacted poorly," Ricketts later wrote in a post on X. "I appreciate @hicharliecotton taking my phone call so I could apologize."
Cotton responded on X, writing, "I accept your apology Pete. I respect anyone who can take accountability when they make a mistake. Thank u for the call - I look fwd to our next conversation."
However, online critics were shocked to see Cotton's video of the incident and vented their outrage before Ricketts could get off scot-free.
"What is this?" Drop Site News reporter Julian Andreone reacted on X. "They were coming from the basement, which is inside the building, meaning Charlie, a credentialed reporter, had already been through security and is free to navigate the Russell office building and film anywhere within it he'd like."
"This is ludicrous!" Eric Michael Garcia, the DC bureau chief for The Independent, posted. "Charlie is doing his job and posed no security threat to Ricketts."
"A senator can say no comment or say nothing," NOTUS reporter Igor Bobic wrote. "But reporters have every right to ask him questions in a public hallway."
"Why did Capitol Police stop a reporter from asking questions?" MS NOW congressional reporter Matt Fuller asked. "The answer is because Sen. Pete Ricketts asked them to, but this is a wholly inappropriate use of the Capitol Police."