An “angry” White House official told CNN’s Jim Acosta that the Trump administration was “tricked” into allowing a Russian photographer to publish images from Wednesday’s meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“That’s the problem with the Russians — they lie,” the unnamed White House official told Acosta.
American press members were shut out of the meeting from which the only images released were by Russia’s news agency, TASS. And, according to CNN’s source, the White House was blindsided, and didn’t anticipate the photos would go public.
Also Read: 'Morning Joe' Calls Trump 'Bumbling Dope' For Letting Russian Reporters Into Oval Office
The situation has been heavily criticized, with the former national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden taking to Twitter to question the event. MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough called Trump a “bumbling dope” on Thursday morning because of the way the meeting was handled.
“The White House official insisted it is standard practice to keep more of a lid on presidential meetings with lower-level foreign officials, as opposed to visits from heads of state, which typically come with greater press coverage,” Acosta wrote.
While many critics have questioned why Trump would meet with a Russian official amid an ongoing investigation into whether or not Russia interfered with the 2016 election, Acosta’s source at the White House defended the president.
“What are we supposed to do?” the official asked Acosta. “Not meet with the Russians?”
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