JD Vance Accuses Politico of ‘Journalistic Malpractice’ as He Targets Reporter in Lengthy Rant: ‘Disgraceful’
Vice President JD Vance listens as President Donald Trump holds an executive order signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Vice President JD Vance accused Politico of “journalistic malpractice” and singled out a reporter behind a story suggesting special envoy Steve Witkoff is out of his depth in his current role.
In a lengthy post to X on Friday, Vance claimed there was “foreign influence” behind a report from Felicia Schwartz, a diplomatic correspondent for Politico whom Vance singled out and tagged in his post.
“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,” the vice president wrote. “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.”
Vance claimed that quotes from himself, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Jared Kushner were left out of the report. The report does partly quote Vance at one point saying, “Witkoff has made more progress towards ending the bloodshed in Ukraine than all his critics combined.” Schwartz said the White House sent over a list of quotes from officials praising Witkoff for the story, which Nahal Toosi and Jack Detsch contributed to.
According to Schwartz’s reporting, some officials are frustrated with Witkoff’s “go it along style,” which they feel has created difficulties for negotiating a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Schwartz wrote:
Some frustrated U.S., Ukrainian and European officials say part of the problem is the go-it-alone style of Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy for peace missions and go-to negotiator on Ukraine. He has refused to consult with experts and allies, leaving him uninformed at times and unprepared at others, according to seven people familiar with internal discussions. Two said he misses the mark by viewing the conflict through a real estate lens, like a land dispute.
Trump’s unconventional fixer has met Putin five times over six months, but he has yet to translate his access to the Russian leader into any breakthroughs on Ukraine.
The reporter cited a total of 13 people, both U.S. and foreign officials, for the lengthy report on Witkoff’s role in the White House and his background.
“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 anonymous person said about Witkoff.
Some who talked to Schwartz did defend Witkoff, while others attacked his “rogue” style and accused him of over-simplifying the Ukraine/Russia situation.
“The thing is, Witkoff isn’t consistently engaged. He will pop in for a visit to Vladimir Putin, say a bunch of stuff, not tell anyone what really happened and then just fuck off to his life again. Meanwhile, the Russians are talking to you about how ‘Witkoff says…’ and you don’t know whether they’re right or not, but you can’t get a readout from the Russians,” one official said.
“What I’m here to do is actually bring two sides together, narrow the issues and get it to a place where we can build political capital and fix this stupid thing,” Witkoff said in defense of his work.
Vance dismissed the Politico report as garbage and went after Schwartz, suggesting the reporter could have been manipulated. Like President Donald Trump, Vance took issue with the use of anonymous quotes despite that being common practice for such reporting. Vance argued the quotes on Witkoff were meant to complicate and derail peace efforts.
“There are two possible explanations: Felicia is just not very smart, and allowed herself to be used by deep state con men,” Vance wrote. “Or she’s in on it, and used her position to willingly participate in a literal foreign influence operation. Either way, it’s disgraceful.”
