Vice President JD Vance accused Politico of journalistic malpractice and alleged foreign influence behind reporting that questioned special envoy Steve Witkoff's competence. Vance singled out Felicia Schwartz and tagged her in an X post, saying the story omitted praise from officials including himself, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Jared Kushner. The White House provided a list of quotes praising Witkoff. Some U.S., Ukrainian and European officials expressed frustration with Witkoff's go-it-alone style, saying he refused to consult experts and allies and was sometimes uninformed and unprepared during negotiations.
This story from Politico is journalistic malpractice. But it's more than that: it's a foreign influence operation meant to hurt the administration and one of our most effective members, the vice president wrote. Notice how all of the people attacking Steve are on background? That means it's two or three deep staters who are angry that Witkoff has succeeded where they've failed.
Vance claimed that quotes from himself, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Jared Kushner were left out of the report. The report does partly quote Vance at one point saying, Witkoff has made more progress towards ending the bloodshed in Ukraine than all his critics combined. Schwartz said the White House sent over a list of quotes from officials praising Witkoff for the story, which Nahal Toosi and Jack Detsch contributed to.
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