Washington DC [US], October 21 (HBTV): White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday hit back at a reporter, calling him a ‘left-wing hack’ and claiming he is not a journalist.
US President Donald Trump has reportedly announced that he will soon meet Russian President Vladimir Putin 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, she said, ‘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 finalised for the summit, which is expected to be held 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 arranged between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Al Jazeera reported.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Zelenskyy said he would take part if invited. The Ukrainian president, however, expressed caution about the meeting’s setting in Budapest, given Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s close ties with Moscow and his strained relationship 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 push for an end to the war that began in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Zelenskyy, however, warned against a repeat of the ‘Budapest scenario’ — a reference to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Moscow and other powers provided security assurances to Ukraine and other former Soviet states in exchange for giving up their inherited nuclear arsenals, Al Jazeera reported.
(ANI)