White House Bars AP and Reuters From Trump-Zelensky Meeting -- Kicks Out Russian State Media Reporter Who Snuck In

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: MEDIAite

Feb 28th, 2025, 12:36 pm


A White House meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday made news right away for some drama in the press corps, with two outlets being barred from the Oval Office and a reporter from a Russian state-owned media outlet apparently sneaking in, and then getting kicked out by White House staff.

The Trump administration has been publicly sparring with the White House press corps, barring the AP from the Oval Office and Air Force One over a dispute about the name of a body of water and taking control of the press pool from the White House Correspondents’ Association.

Several journalists, including The Independent’s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg and Reuters’ Nandita Bose, reported Friday morning that the AP and Reuters had been “excluded” from being in the room — along with initially reporting that a correspondent from TASS, a state-owned news agency and the largest in Russia, was among the “hand-picked” reporters invited to the Oval Office for the Trump-Zelensky meeting.

The White House swiftly pushed back against the reports the TASS reporter was invited, saying instead that he snuck into the meeting. “TASS was not on the approved list of media for today’s pool. As soon as it came to the attention of press office staff that he was in the Oval, he was escorted out by the Press Secretary,” a White House official said in a statement to reporters. “He is not on the approved list for the press conference.”

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/news/white-house-bars-ap-and-reuters-from-trump-zelensky-meeting-kicks-out-russian-state-media-reporter-who-snuck-in/

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Link to tweet

Nandita Bose
@nanditab1
·
Follow
Can confirm White House is letting in a reporter from Russian state news agency TASS to cover the bilat between Trump and Zelenskiy. Reuters and AP were excluded.
Andrew Feinberg
@AndrewFeinberg
Among the hand-picked folks the White House is letting into the Oval Office with @realDonaldTrump and @ZelenskyyUa today is a correspondent from TASS, the Russian state news agency.
11:25 AM · Feb 28, 2025

[Qutzupalotl]

1. How can they tell Tass from OANN?

[JoseBalow]

7. From the beet stains left behind on drumpf's ass

[tulipsandroses]

2. How does any uninvited person just sneak in? Especially after trump getting his ear grazed.

Heads should be rolling. Congress should be calling for meetings. This is a security breach.

[highplainsdem]

4. There's no way that Russian reporter just "snuck in" - he was invited.

[SunSeeker]

5. Exactly. Lying, as usual. nt

[wcollar]

6. 50/50 chance

Between lying about it and just plain incompetence. Pretty clear that nobody there knows whats going on.
The clowns are running the circus.

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. Stupidity has its limits

This is standard Trump behavior. When they’re caught, they simply lie.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/28/media/tass-russian-state-media-oval-office/index.html

…

A correspondent for TASS, a Russian state media organization, was among a group of hand-picked pool reporters present in the Oval Office for the leaders’ meeting, which is part of the US’ efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. The testy Trump-Zelensky sit-down may yield a signed deal that would exchange US access to Ukraine’s mineral resources for security guarantees.

Though the group of pool reporters in the Oval Office was hand picked, the White House has denied the TASS staffer was permitted entry.

“TASS was not on the approved list of media for today’s pool,” a White House official told CNN in a statement. “As soon as it came to the attention of press office staff that he was in the Oval, he was escorted out by the Press Secretary.”

“He is not on the approved list for the press conference,” the official said.

…

[orangecrush]

8. Russian national

Snuck right past the SS.

Bullshit.

[Karasu]

9. What a fucking fascist cartoon show.