Politico has pulled Dave Catanese from the publication’s Todd Akin coverage over the reporter’s tweets about the embattled Missouri Republican Senate candidate. After Akin said “legitimate rape” victims rarely get pregnant, Catanese took to Twitter to defend Akin “for argument’s sake.”
In a memo posted by The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple, Politico’s Editor-in-Chief John Harris and Executive Editor Jim VandeHei said: “Dave’s tweets on Akin created a distraction to his own work, and to the newsroom as a whole. They also made himself part of the story, requiring us for now to remove him from Akin coverage.”
