The Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker early Wednesday sent out emails criticizing his staff over "commentary dressed up as news reporting" over the coverage of President Donald Trump's rally in Phoenix, according to emails reviewed by The New York Times.

"Sorry. This is commentary dressed up as news reporting," he wrote of a draft of the article intended for the newspaper's final edition.

"Could we please just stick to reporting what he said rather than packaging it in exegesis and selective criticism?" he wrote in a second email.

After Baker reviewed the article, several phrases were removed, including where a reporter described the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, as "reshaping" Trump's presidency.

Also cut from the final version was the description of Trump's speech as "an off-script return to campaign form" where Trump "pivoted away from remarks a day earlier in which he had solemnly called for unity."

A Journal spokeswoman in a statement emailed to the Times wrote the news outlet "has a clear separation between news and opinion. As always, the key priority is to focus reporting on facts and avoid opinion seeping into news coverage."

The Journal has been criticized for being too easy on Trump, including last month when Politico published a transcript of a White House interview with the president conducted by Baker and other Journal reporters.

Baker reportedly made small talk with Trump about golf and travel and, when Ivanka Trump walked in, he told her, "It was nice to see you out in Southampton a couple weeks ago."