Washington DC [US], October 20 (ANI): White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday hit back at a reporter, calling him a “left-wing hack” and “not a journalist,” after being questioned about US President Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump has reportedly announced plans to meet Putin soon to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine. When a reporter texted Leavitt asking who chose the location for the meeting, she replied, “Your mom did.”
Leavitt later shared a screenshot of her exchange with the journalist, alleging that his messages resembled an “anti-US President Donald Trump diary.”
In a post on X, Leavitt wrote, “For context, S.V. Date of the Huffington Post is not a journalist interested in the facts. He is a left-wing hack who has consistently attacked President Trump for years and constantly bombards my phone with Democrat talking points. Just take a look at SV Date’s feed—it reads like an anti-Trump personal diary. Here is my full response to his ‘inquiry.’ Activists who masquerade as real reporters do a disservice to the profession.”
No date has yet been finalized for the summit, which is expected to take place in the Hungarian capital in the coming weeks, Al Jazeera reported.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is willing to join the summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Zelenskyy said he would participate if invited.
The Ukrainian leader expressed concern over the meeting’s proposed location in Budapest, citing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s close ties with Moscow and strained relations with Kyiv. “If I am invited to Budapest—if it is an invitation in a format where we meet as three, or as it’s called, shuttle diplomacy, President Trump meets with Putin and President Trump meets with me—then in one format or another, we will agree,” Zelenskyy said.
Trump has continued to advocate for ending the conflict that began in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. However, Zelenskyy cautioned against a repeat of the “Budapest scenario”—a reference to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which Moscow and other powers offered security assurances to Ukraine and other former Soviet states in exchange for giving up their inherited nuclear arsenals, Al Jazeera reported. (ANI)
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