Beautiful Virgin Islands

Saturday, Sep 06, 2025

Trump adviser apologises for interview with Kremlin-backed media

Trump adviser apologises for interview with Kremlin-backed media

Scott Atlas says he regrets ‘allowing myself to be taken advantage of’, adding he was unaware that Russian news outlet RT was a registered foreign agent.

Scott Atlas, a White House policy adviser on the coronavirus, apologised on Sunday for “allowing myself to be taken advantage of” by a Russian media outlet backed by the Kremlin.

Atlas said he spoke to RT without realising the company’s foreign ties.

“I recently did an interview with RT and was unaware they are a registered foreign agent,” tweeted Atlas, a neuroradiologist who joined the White House in August. “I regret doing the interview and apologise for allowing myself to be taken advantage of. I especially apologise to the national security community who is working hard to defend us.”


The Foreign Agents Registration Act “requires certain agents of foreign principals who are engaged in political activities or other activities … to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities”, according to the Justice Department.

Atlas did a lengthy interview with RT’s Afshin Rattansi on Saturday, just days before Tuesday’s presidential election. The nearly 28-minute segment was posted to the YouTube page Going Underground on RT.

The director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, warned last month that Iran and Russia had obtained voter registration data of some Americans. And US intelligence officials found that Russia had sought to influence the 2016 presidential election, writing in a January 2017 report that “Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect [Donald] Trump”.

In August, the director of the National Counter-intelligence and Security Centre, William Evanina, announced that Russia was “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former vice-president Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment’”.

“Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television,” he said in a statement at the time.

In the interview on Saturday, Atlas said there was no understating the pandemic, noting the US death toll.

“It’s tragic. There’s no question about that,” he said. “But if you wanna know what’s happening right now, I think there’s a gross distortion that has sort of been typical of the reporting on this. And that is that there’s this frenzy of focusing on the number of cases when we see a lot of reasons to be sort of, you know, cautiously optimistic here rather than fearful.”

More than 9 million Americans have been infected by Covid-19, and more than 230,000 people have died in the US.

Trump has falsely claimed that the country is “rounding the turn”, but Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The Washington Post in an interview published on Saturday that the nation was “in for a whole lot of hurt.”

“It’s not a good situation,” he said. “All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
US Justice Department Launches Criminal Mortgage-Fraud Probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Escalating Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America: A Growing Crisis
US and Taiwanese Defence Officials Held Secret Talks in Alaska
Report: Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission in North Korea Ordered by Trump in 2019 Ended in Failure
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Florida Murder Case: The Adelson Family, the Killing of Dan Markel, and the Trial of Donna Adelson
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Brand-New $1 Million Yacht Sinks Just Fifteen Minutes After Maiden Launch in Turkey
Here’s What the FBI Seized in John Bolton Raid — and the Legal Risks He Faces
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Queen Camilla’s Teenage Courage: Fended Off Attempted Assault on London Train, New Biography Reveals
Scottish Brothers Set Record in Historic Pacific Row
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Court of Appeal Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Essex Hotel Amid Local Tax Boycott Threats
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
Nvidia Reveals: Two Mystery Customers Account for About 40% of Revenue
Woody Allen: "I Would Be Happy to Direct Trump Again in a Film"
×