US Vice President claims Politico is driving “foreign influence” against Witkoff

(MENAFN) US Vice President J.D. Vance has accused Politico of conducting a “foreign influence operation” targeting special envoy Steve Witkoff, denouncing the outlet’s reporting as “journalistic malpractice” for relying heavily on anonymous sources while excluding statements from senior officials who supported Witkoff.

The article, published Friday by Politico correspondent Felicia Schwartz under the headline “‘His inexperience shines through’: Steve Witkoff struggles to manage Russia as Trump peace envoy,” cited 13 unnamed American and foreign officials who claimed that Witkoff lacks diplomatic skills and has created confusion in negotiations with Moscow.

“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,” Vance wrote on X.

Vance said the piece omitted his full statement and comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former White House adviser Jared Kushner, and British diplomat Jonathan Powell. He accused the author of using the article to undermine the president’s peace efforts. “The person who wrote this garbage… They have an agenda to blow up the president’s efforts to make peace, and they saw her as a useful vessel to launder garbage into the conversation, truth be damned,” Vance said.

Powell, the UK’s former chief negotiator in Northern Ireland, was briefly quoted praising Witkoff for “opening doors no one else could,” but in full remarks he dismissed what he called the “snobbery in diplomacy” and explained why Witkoff is the type of independent negotiator capable of succeeding where others fail. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also criticized Politico for cherry-picking quotes, while Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair called the article “a foreign influence operation run through a German-controlled online media outlet.”

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