“I would welcome the opportunity for you to come to my home, meet my wife and kids, talk to us for a few minutes, and then call me a ‘bedbug’ to my face. I think you’ve set a new standard,” Stephens wrote.

“I’m often amazed about the things supposedly decent people are prepared to say about other people - people they’ve never met - on Twitter. However, the post still managed to catch Stephens’ attention.Ī few hours after posting the tweet Monday, Karpf was surprised with an email from the writer - an email that was also sent to Karpf’s provost at the university.

Stephens, a Times conservative writer, was not tagged directly in the tweet, which initially only picked up nine likes and no retweets.