Politics

Reporter Forced Out Of Trump-Putin Conference And Jailed Is Upset He Didn’t Get To Ask Question

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Benny Johnson Columnist, Viral Politics
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Sam Husseini, a credentialed journalist from far-left publication The Nation, was forced out of a conference during the greatly anticipated Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, Finland, on Monday.

Husseini held up a sign that read, “Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty,” before the two leaders took the stage and began yelling, according to reporters in the room.

Husseini was then tackled and dragged out of the hall by security in a wild moment. Now, after being released from jail, Husseini is writing that he is upset that he did not get to ask a question of Trump or Putin but was instead jailed.

Writing in The Nation, Husseini laments, “came to Helsinki to ask Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin questions about the threat of nuclear weapons and to distribute an open letter about the need for secure elections and true national security. Instead, I was dragged out of their press conference before it even began and into a Finnish jail.”

There we no charges pressed against the activist.

Husseini goes on to say that he would have asked about the prohibition of nuclear weapons globally and “Israel’s clandestine nuclear-weapons.”

Husseini laments that politicians don’t like to call on him. “If government officials don’t like your questions, they just won’t call on you,” Husseini says, “That’s why — after discussing the matter with my colleague at the Institute for Public Accuracy, Norman Solomon, a long-time journalist in his own right — I came up with the idea of holding up a small piece of paper that might draw Trump or Putin’s attention. We settled on a reference to the treaty that Russia and the United States are blocking: nuclear weapon ban treaty.”

A spokesperson for The Nation says they are “troubled” that Husseini was “forcibly removed” from the press briefing.

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