The New York Times issued a statement defending its editorial board member Mara Gay after she went on television and expressed the “disturbing” sight of American flags she witnessed during a visit {snip}

On Tuesday morning, the MSNBC analyst appeared on “Morning Joe” and spoke about how “Americanness” and “Whiteness” need to be separated.

“I was on Long Island this weekend visiting a really dear friend, and I was really disturbed,” Gay said. “I saw, you know, dozens and dozens of pickup trucks with explicatives [sic] against Joe Biden on the back of them, Trump flags, and in some cases just dozens of American flags, which is also just disturbing … Essentially the message was clear. ‘This is my country. This is not your country. I own this.’”

Gay received swift backlash on social media for her condemnation of the all the American flags she saw, but according to a statement released by her employer, her critics are off-base.

“New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay’s comments on MSNBC have been irresponsibly taken out of context,” NYTimes Communications tweeted Tuesday evening. “Her argument was that Trump and many of his supporters have politicized the American flag.”

{snip}