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 House’s Rapid Response 47 account fired back, the Daily Beast reported. “Should the Special Envoy have insulted the man, imperiled the release of an American citizen, and torched any possibility of finally resolving a war that has gone on for far too long?” the account asked. “These things are complicated. This is why you’re not a negotiator.”
The Daily Beast’s Leigh Kimmins wrote, “Someone in the Trump administration nerve center is rattled.”
Doornbos later responded, "The White House tried to put me in my place. I was already in a bomb shelter in Kyiv."
MS NOW host Joe Scarborough also weighed in after Witkoff shared a post about Hubbard’s release. “Stephen was kidnapped and abused for FOUR YEARS by the dictator you just called a humanitarian,” Scarborough wrote. “Putin kidnaps Americans, assassinates political rivals, kills journalists, murders toddlers, and kidnaps thousands of children. And you call him a humanitarian. There are no words.”
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, writing about the release, said there is “no cause to be grateful” to Putin. The board called Witkoff’s praise a “rhetorical smooch.”
The White House tried to put me in my place. I was already in a bomb shelter in Kyiv.Here’s what happened when I questioned Trump’s envoy calling Putin a “humanitarian” — and the response I got from the president’s own team. #ukraine https://t.co/n1veXqIOpy
— Caitlin Doornbos (@CaitlinDoornbos) October 22, 2026