{"id":285565,"date":"2025-11-27T04:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T04:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/285565\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T04:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T04:55:10","slug":"traitor-us-representatives-call-for-trump-envoy-witkoff-to-be-fired-after-leaked-kremlin-call-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/285565\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Traitor\u2019: US representatives call for Trump envoy Witkoff to be fired after leaked Kremlin call | Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

A handful of US representatives have reacted furiously to a leaked recording in which the special envoy to Ukraine<\/a> reportedly coached<\/a> Moscow on how to handle Donald Trump<\/a>, but most have so far remained mute on the revelation that American officials were advising a US adversary.<\/p>\n

Don Bacon, a Republican representative, called for Steve Witkoff\u2019s immediate dismissal. \u201cFor those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign & democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians,\u201d the Nebraska lawmaker wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he? He should be fired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican wrote<\/a> that the leak<\/a> represented \u201ca major problem\u201d and \u201cone of the many reasons why these ridiculous side shows and secret meetings need to stop\u201d. He urged that the secretary of state, Marco Rubio<\/a>, be allowed to \u201cdo his job in a fair and objective manner\u201d.<\/p>\n

Democratic representative Ted Lieu went further, calling Witkoff an \u201cactual traitor<\/a>,\u201d and adding: \u201cSteve Witkoff is supposed to work for the United States, not Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a recording<\/a> obtained by Bloomberg<\/a> of a 14 October phone call between Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin\u2019s top foreign policy aide, Witkoff said peace would require Moscow gaining control of Donetsk and potentially additional Ukrainian territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, me to you, I know what it\u2019s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere,\u201d Witkoff said, according to Bloomberg\u2019s transcript. \u201cBut I\u2019m saying instead of talking like that, let\u2019s talk more hopefully because I think we\u2019re going to get to a deal here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Witkoff also gave Ushakov tactical advice, including how the Russian leader should approach the issue with Trump. It included suggestions about scheduling a Trump-Putin phone call before the planned visit of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a>, to the White House.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Ushakov appeared to confirm the call\u2019s authenticity to Russian state television, suggesting the leak was meant to \u201chinder\u201d negotiations. During the conversation, Ushakov said Putin would congratulate Trump and call him \u201ca real peace man\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump defended Witkoff<\/a> on Tuesday night. \u201cThat\u2019s what a dealmaker does. You\u2019ve got to say look, they want this, you\u2019ve got to convince them of this,\u201d Trump said while onboard Air Force One. \u201cThat\u2019s a very standard form of negotiation.\u201d He added that he imagined Witkoff \u201cis saying the same thing to Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s special missions envoy, Richard Grenell, meanwhile, called for the leaker to be fired, not Witkoff. \u201cFind the leaker and fire them immediately. No excuses. The anonymous leaker is a national security risk,\u201d he wrote in a social media post.<\/p>\n

The controversial, 28-point proposal would force Ukraine<\/a> to surrender the entire Donetsk region, including areas currently under Ukrainian control. These territories would become a demilitarized buffer zone recognized internationally as Russian territory.<\/p>\n

The plan would also grant Russia control of Luhansk and Crimea while freezing battle lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Russia has not fully captured Donetsk despite nearly four years of war.<\/p>\n

Putin said earlier this month that the US plan could form the basis for a final settlement, though the Kremlin claims it has not discussed details with Washington.<\/p>\n

Trump announced earlier on Tuesday he is sending Witkoff to Moscow<\/a> to meet Putin and the US army secretary, Dan Driscoll<\/a>, to meet Ukrainian officials, ahead of a possible Trump-Zelenskyy meeting on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A handful of US representatives have reacted furiously to a leaked recording in which the special envoy to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-285565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}