White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was called out Monday for refusing to answer a reporter’s question, instead resorting to a sophomoric response.
Leavitt’s exchange with the Huffington Post began on Thursday, when reporter S.V. Dáte asked her who suggested Budapest, Hungary, as the site of Donald Trump’s next meeting with Vladimir Putin.
In his text message, Dáte asked if Trump was “aware of the significance” of the city, considering it was there in 1994 when Russia pledged to not invade Ukraine if it relinquished its nuclear weapons. Russia has violated that pledge multiple times.
Leavitt’s response: “Your mom did.”
On Monday, Leavitt raised the topic again by posting on X a screenshot of their text exchange, in which she accused Dáte of being a “far left hack who nobody takes seriously.”
“It’s funny to me that you actually consider yourself a journal,” Leavitt also wrote, apparently not proofreading her message.
Twenty minutes after Leavitt’s post, Date responded: “Feel better now? Now can you answer the question? Please and thank you.”
Leavitt has not yet responded on X. She did not immediately respond to a Daily Beast email reiterating Dáte’s question.
But White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson did reply to Dáte with a Dril meme.
Leavitt’s non-answer was soon criticized by X users, some of whom—like former CNBC reporter John Harwood—said the 28-year-old’s response was more appropriate for someone a fraction of her age.
“What are you 11?” left-wing influencer Brian Krassenstein wrote, while his brother wondered whether the country is “being run by 2nd graders.”
“Answer the question,” the group Republicans Against Trump added.
“Every time you think they can’t sink lower,” journalist and Zeteo editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan weighed in.
Meanwhile, The Bulwark managing editor Sam Stein said matter-of-factly that Dáte’s question was “pretty simple.”
On MSNBC’s The Weekend, co-host Ayman Mohyeldin sarcastically called Leavitt’s response “classy all around.”
“American taxpayer dollars [are] paying for class acts from the top down,” the journalist said, in a segment that also touched on Trump’s AI post of himself in a “King Trump” fighter jet dumping brown waste on anti-Trump protesters.
