A number of senior White House officials have sparked controversy after giving what were deemed inappropriate answers to an American media outlet, when asked about the choice of venue for the upcoming meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
اضافة اعلان
Trump announced Thursday his intention to meet Putin soon in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, to discuss ways to end the war in Ukraine. The choice of venue has raised questions and criticism, given that Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Associated Press noted that Hungary has shown little willingness to cooperate with the arrest warrant — and is even moving toward withdrawing from the ICC.
When a reporter from HuffPost asked who chose the meeting location, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt replied: “Your mom did.”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung repeated the same response: “Your mom,” according to the outlet.
When later asked if she thought her reply was funny, Leavitt said:
“What’s actually funny is that you think you’re a journalist. You’re just a far-left activist that nobody takes seriously — not even your media colleagues, though they won’t tell you that to your face. Stop sending your fake, biased, garbage questions.”
In a statement to The Independent, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers defended the responses, calling them “more than appropriate,” saying:
“The person who received those messages isn’t a real journalist — he’s a Democratic activist. So the response he got was perfectly suitable.”
He added that the White House media team deals daily with hundreds of serious inquiries from real journalists and doesn’t have time to waste on “partisan impostors.”
Cheung later reposted a tweet about the incident Friday evening without any further comment.
Leavitt had already stirred controversy the previous day during an appearance on Fox News, where she described the Democratic Party’s base as consisting of “Hamas terrorists, illegal immigrants, and violent criminals.”
She added:
“Democrats stand for nothing except appeasing their far-left base, which, as I said, includes anti-Semites, Hamas terrorists, illegal immigrants, and violent offenders they want released to roam America’s streets.”
Tensions continue to escalate between the White House and the media as political rhetoric grows increasingly heated ahead of the upcoming presidential election. (Agencies)
