White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is at it again, attacking a reporter over a legitimate question about Monday’s White House summit between President Donald Trump and European leaders. The fiery exchange, which ended with Leavitt dodging the question as she lashed out in fury, quickly drew sharp reactions across social media.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and seven other European leaders met with Trump over how to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.
After the meeting Trump left the other leaders to call Putin to update the Russian president on the talks. He later told Fox News he did not want to call Putin in front of the Europeans because he thought it would be “disrespectful.”
Insisting that Putin would not want to speak with them either because “they’ve not had the warmest relations.”
At Tuesday’s White House press briefing New York Times reporter Shawn McCreesh asked an obvious question.
“If the point is to get everybody on the same page, why wouldn’t Trump just take the call from Putin while the other leaders were in the room? He said it would be disrespectful to do that, but why is it disrespectful?” McCreesh asked.
That’s when Leavitt boiled over.
“With all due respect, only a reporter from the New York Times would ask a question like that, Shawn,” she simpered.
Then Leavitt totally avoided answering the question and rambled on about how quickly the Europeans came to Washington.
“The President met with all these European leaders at the White House 48 hours after sitting down with President Putin on American soil. In fact, there was so much progress in the read-out that was given to these European leaders immediately following his meeting with President Putin that every single one of them got on a plane 48 hours later and flew to the United States of America.”
It’s unclear why she said that, because Trump’s plans to meet with Zelenskyy and the European leaders were announced before he met with Putin. So not only did she not answer the question, her answer didn’t even make sense.
Social media quickly roasted Leavitt over her deviousness.
“Only a press secretary dodging accountability like Karoline Leavitt would insult a legitimate question instead of answering why Trump snubbed Putin during key Ukraine talks,” social media user Richard Angwin pointed out in a post on X.
“When they dislike a question, they bash the reporter—a typical MAGA tactic,” DJ Omega Mvp observed.
“Just once, I would love a reporter to reply ‘that is not an answer’ and repeat the question,” this X user pined.
“Trump thought it was ‘disrespectful’ to Putin to call him in front of our allies, so he snuck it in behind their backs,” Evaristus Odinikaeze said in a post on X. “That says it all: he puts Putin’s feelings above America’s strength and unity with Europe. A president should stand with our allies, not tiptoe around a dictator.”
This X user wondered, “Again, who’s the boss here?” with that caption above a photo of Putin holding Trump as a puppet on his arm.
After the meeting, Trump, Zelenskyy and other European leaders expressed support for direct talks between Zelenskyy and Putin, something Trump also mentioned after his meeting with Putin Friday in Alaska, but which the Russian president repeatedly has avoided responding to.
Leavitt also said Tuesday plans for talks between Putin and Zelenskyy are underway. The Kremlin has dodged any commitments to a meeting with Zelenskyy but hasn’t ruled out further talks, according to CNN.
Great Job Shelby E. & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
