After Leavitt used a “your mom” joke to respond to a HuffPost reporter’s question about Trump’s meeting with Putin, the 28-year-old was met with backlash online, and accused of being “bratty” and “juvenile.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has gone viral online over an unusual response she gave to a journalist.
On Monday, Leavitt — who has served as Trump’s Press Secretary since January — shared a screenshot that seemingly showed a text message between herself and HuffPost White House correspondent — and veteran journalist — S.V. Dáte, in which she used a “your mom” joke to respond to the reporter’s question about the location of the president’s meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
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“Is the president aware of the significance of Budapest? In 1994, Russia promised, in Budapest, not to invade Ukraine if it gave up the nuclear weapons it inherited when the Soviet Union dissolved,” Dáte wrote, per the screenshot. “Does he not see why Ukraine might object to that site?” (Putin broke the 1994 Budapest Memorandum in 2014 when he annexed Crimea and again when he invaded Ukraine in 2022.)
“Who suggested Budapest? Thanks,” Dáte asked, to which Leavitt, 28, replied, “Your mom did.”
“Is this funny to you?” Dáte hit back at Leavitt, who responded, “It’s funny to me that you actually consider yourself a journal [sic]. You are a far left hack who nobody takes seriously, including your colleagues in the media, they just don’t tell you that to your face. Stop texting me your disingenuous, biased, and bulls–t questions.”
HuffPost first revealed Leavitt’s unusual one-liner response to Dáte’s question on Friday, also reporting that White House Communications Director Steven Cheung had chimed in, echoing Leavitt by answering the question with, “Your mom.”
Alongside the screenshot of her and Dáte’s text exchange, Leavitt continued to slam Dáte, writing, “For context, S.V. Dáte 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 @svdate’s feed, it reads like an anti-Trump personal diary. Here is my full response to his ‘inquiry,'” she continued, referring to the screenshot of the text messages. “Activists who masquerade as real reporters do a disservice to the profession.”
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Shortly after, Dáte clapped back, replying to Leavitt’s post.
“Feel better now? Now can you answer the question? Please and thank you,” he wrote.
Users on X joined Dáte in criticizing Leavitt’s remarks, which they slammed as “juvenile” and immature.
“I don’t know how, but for some reason you thought posting your text made you look better? It did not. It was a legitimate question, asked respectfully, but since you are perpetually in a defensive crouch because people are getting sick of being lied to, your reply was extremely crude,” a person wrote. “You come across as bratty, juvenile, and highly unprofessional. That you would publicly conduct yourself this way may please your current boss, but the rest us are just shaking our heads.”
“What are you 11?” a second user asked, while another commented, “Are you a press secretary or a 5-year-old? Seriously, you need to grow up.”
“What was wrong with the question? The Budapest memorandum is a real agreement that the U.S. entered into with Ukraine…,” another asked. “And even if you didn’t like the question, why do you think it’s okay to behave like a juvenile? You represent the United States Of America…”
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As Leavitt’s comment started to become trending on X, Dáte posted a lengthy thread addressing his exchange with the press secretary, and added further context.
“The press secretary is tossing out ad hominem attacks, hoping to discredit me and HuffPost,” began the veteran reporter. “So here is some actual context: I’ve been doing this professionally for a dozen years before she was even born.”
Dáte detailed his decades-long career as a journalist, beginning with his first job out of college, all the way until he came to DC in his 40s, and ultimately began covering the White House.
“All of those jobs were at mainstream, traditional media. HuffPost is my first at someplace that brands itself as progressive – which allowed be the on the cutting edge of journalists to point out Donald Trump as an autocratic threat,” he wrote. “
“Trump is not ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ or any of that. He is a conman and, now, a criminal who is moving us every day closer to an autocracy,” he continued, adding that his comment isn’t “bias” but “40 years in this business, 30 of which were watching small ‘d’ democracy work within the norms established over two centuries.”
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“People like Ms. Leavitt keep tossing around ‘objectivity’ as if that means reporters are not permitted to use their expertise and their experience to describe what’s going on,” Dáte went on, before listing several of the disturbing allegations against Trump.
The veteran journalist accused Trump of “using his office to enrich himself — the definition of corruption — more than any previous president did, in fact, more than any previous president likely ever dreamed of doing. And it’s not even close.”
“These are all facts. Indisputable. I’m not being ‘biased’ to point them out,” he said, before concluding, “Ms. Leavitt may not like my questions. That’s fine. I have a right and a responsibility to ask them. This is still America.”
Meanwhile, Leavitt’s now-infamous joke was used once again on Friday after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wore a red, white, and blue tie during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House that raised eyebrows over the tie pattern’s apparent resemblance to the Russian flag.
Russia’s news agency, TASS, also praised Hegseth’s accessory, according to The Telegraph on Sunday.
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HuffPost reported that it asked Hegseth’s aides about Russia’s comments about his neckwear and if he’s worn the accessory before, writing that the Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell replied, “Your mom bought it for him — and it’s a patriotic American tie, moron.”
The publication said it further pressed by asking if Hegseth knows the US flag code, which notes the flag “should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery.” Hegseth often wears ties that feature red, white, and blue print.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson addressed HuffPost’s question by slamming the outlet.
“If loving one’s country enough to represent it head to toe is a crime in the eyes of the leftist blog known as HuffPost, then consider Secretary Hegseth guilty. He is a patriot who reveres this country and our flag,” Wilson said, per HuffPost.
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