‘Evil B*stards!’ Benny Johnson Slams NYT ‘Hit Piece’ as Reporter Defends Article Debunking His Claims
MAGA influencer Benny Johnson erupted in anger at The New York Times after the paper published an investigation challenging his claims to have experienced violent crime and targeted arson while living with his family in Washington D.C.
The article, by investigative reporter Ken Bensinger, examined how Johnson was given the “new media seat” at a White House press briefing in August, one day after President Donald Trump federal takeover of D.C. law enforcement in order to crack down on crime in the city.
When called on by the Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Johnson used his platform to describe witnessing “murders” on his Ring doorbell camera and how his “house was set ablaze in an arson” while his family was inside. He thanked the president for making the city “safe.” He also posted footage to X at the time which he said showed the incidents he’d described.
In an article published Saturday, The Times sought to fact-check those claims.
Police and fire records showed no murders had taken place on Johnson’s block since 2017, Kensinger reported, and that while a neighboring property was set on fire, Johnson’s own house was not “burned to the ground,” as he had claimed.
The report also revisited Johnson’s past controversies, including plagiarism allegations that led to his firing from BuzzFeed.
Johnson fired back on X, accusing The Times of targeting his family and threatening legal action against the newspaper.
“The New York Times just wrote a hit piece targeting my wife and children,” he wrote, posting security footage showing police breaking into his front door and his wife running from the house with their infant.
He continued: “This was the worst day of my life. I almost lost everything. I moved my family to Florida swiftly afterwards. In spite of all of this hard evidence and the police reports, The New York Times still does not think my wife or newborn were in danger that day. This is the kind of dehumanizing propaganda that actually gets people killed. From the celebration of the Trump assassination to the refusal to pray for the child victims of the Minneapolis Mass shooting, the Left’s goal is to never grant sympathy to regular Americans, even if they’re innocent children. Evil bastards.”
“You should judge a man by his enemies,” he concluded. “I’m proud to have The New York Times work so hard on a hit piece about me.”
Johnson then posted screengrabs of his correspondence with Bensinger:
In response to Johnson’s first tweet, Bensinger rejected Johnson’s rebuttal for containing “multiple falsehoods” about his article and said that the influencer’s lawyers had not “put the NYT on notice.”
“The angle was decidedly not there is no proof his child was in danger. It was that he lied about it being ‘burned to the ground,’” he wrote on X, stressing that the article explicitly acknowledged Johnson’s family being evacuated.
He continued: “Johnson writes “in spite of all the hard evidence & police reports.” In fact, it was the NYT that dug up the police & fire reports that show he was not telling the truth when he claimed in public multiple times that (a) his house burned to the ground and (b) that there were murders on his front lawn.”
“There were no murders on his entire block, although there was a shooting that the police report shows wounded three but killed nobody. The fire report shows his house was not burned because it was contained to the neighboring house,” Bensinger added.
https:/twitter.com/kenbensinger/status/1962516126480716023
The journalist then offered his followers a free “gift link” to his article so they could read it for themselves.
