Vice President JD Vance lashed out at a Politico report questioning Trump peace envoy Steve Witkoff’s handling of talks with Russia, calling the piece “a foreign influence operation” and “disgraceful.”
The article, written by Felicia Schwartz, was headlined, “‘His inexperience shines through’: Steve Witkoff struggles to manage Russia as Trump peace envoy.”
The rant appears as a spectacular attack on a journalist and news organization for a story Vance does not like, and is similar to Trump’s blasts.
The report cited conversations with 13 U.S. and foreign officials, and others familiar with the diplomatic effort.
“His inexperience shines through; he has the president’s ear, which is evident, but there has been some confusion about what has been said and agreed,” one person told Politico.
“He’s kind of a rogue actor,” a U.S. official said. “He talks to all these people, but no one knows what he says in any of these meetings. He will say things publicly, but then he changes his mind. It’s hard to operationalize that.”
Vance initially issued a formal response defending Witkoff, stating, “Witkoff has made more progress towards ending the bloodshed in Ukraine than all his critics combined.”
But in a lengthy post on X on Friday, Vance melted down, slammed the piece, tagged Schwartz, and questioned her intelligence.
“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,” he wrote.
He criticized Schwartz for relying on unnamed sources, saying, “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.”
The piece makes clear that the sources were “granted anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations and internal deliberations.”
Vance accused Politico of omitting supportive statements from top officials. “You know what this ‘reporter’ left out to make room for anonymous quotes? The full quote from the sitting vice president, on the record. A quote from the secretary of the state, on the record. A quote from Jared Kushner, on the record. The full quote from the UK’s Jonathan Powell, one of the most respected national security people in the Western World, who defended Steve vigorously from these malicious smears.”
However, comments from Vance and Powell were included, albeit shortened, likely for brevity.
Vance then targeted Schwartz directly, “There are two possible explanations: Felicia is just not very smart, and allowed herself to be used by deep state con men. Or she’s in on it and used her position to willingly participate in a literal foreign influence operation. Either way, it’s disgraceful.”
“To set the record straight,” Vance added, “Steve Witkoff is an invaluable member of our team. He did not mislead anyone on what the Russians told him and what the Russians conceded. (Trust me, I’ve seen the intel.) The fruits of his negotiations are that we have narrowed the list of open issues in the Russia-Ukraine war to a set of clearly defined issues—specifically, security guarantees and territorial concessions.”
He went on, “Maybe we make peace, and maybe we don’t. If we do, it will be because Steve Witkoff and the President of the United States worked their tails off, in the face of outright lies from the mainstream press.”
