White House 'rattled' by Trump envoy's 'complicated' Putin praise blowback: report

The White House’s rapid-response account pushed back on a former New York Post correspondent who criticized envoy Steve Witkoff’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Daily Beast.Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, told Putin during a Wednesday meeting, “You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again.”The same day, Trump said Putin had freed Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired American teacher held in Russia since 2022, after a personal plea and without asking for anything in return.Reporter Caitlin Doornbos responded on X, according to the Daily Beast. “I’m used to diplomatic pandering by now, but this? 😳” she wrote. She followed up: “For my Republican strategist friends — where the headlines could have been, ‘President Trump brings home American wrongly imprisoned in Russia’ - Witkoff calling Putin a ‘humanitarian’ will be the only thing anyone talks about.”The White...