Witkoff blasted for calling Putin a "humanitarian"

After special envoy Steve Witkoff told Putin he was a “humanitarian” for releasing a U.S. citizen deemed to have been wrongfully detained, GOP Sen. John Cornyn responded, “No. Putin is a stone cold killer.”

Washington — U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff faced immediate backlash Wednesday for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "humanitarian" after he released 74-year-old Stephen Hubbard, an American who had been imprisoned in Russia for four years and who had been determined to be wrongfully detained."You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian," Witkoff told Putin Wednesday in response to Hubbard's release. "You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again."Witkoff made the comment in St. Petersburg during a visit with the Russian president that was aimed at moving toward a resolution of the Ukraine war that Putin started four and a half years ago.

Over the past month, Russia has been intensifying its strikes against civilian and energy infrastructure to try to cripple the power grid before the brutal Ukrainian winter. Mr. Trump was asked later in the day if he would describe Putin the same way Witkoff did. "Well, I guess you have to say for that particular purpose, for the purpose of allowing a man who was thinking he was going to be in prison for life out," Mr. Trump said during a White House roundtable on cyber crime. "But I wouldn't say anything one way or the other." Witkoff's "humanitarian" comment sparked pushback