Headline RoundupJanuary 28th, 2022

White House Disputes Reports on Biden-Ukraine Call

Summary from the AllSides News Team

President Joe Biden's Thursday phone call with Ukraine's president sparked conflicting reports and anonymous insights from across the spectrum. 

CNN cited an anonymous "senior Ukrainian official" who said the call "did not go well." The source reportedly said Biden described a Russian invasion as a certainty during the call and told Zelensky that the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv could be "sacked." CNN and Axios (Center bias) each reported that Biden and Zelesnky disagreed during the call about how imminent a Russian invasion actually was. The White House denied CNN's reporting, accusing anonymous sources of leaking falsehoods and instead saying that Biden told Zelensky there's "a distinct possibility" that Russia could invade Ukraine in February. Zelensky tweeted after the call that he and Biden "agreed on joint actions for the future." Tensions remain high between Russia and Ukraine; a Kremlin spokesperson said Thursday that the U.S. and NATO’s written responses to Russia’s security demands left "little ground for optimism."

Right-rated sources often highlighted how the White House disputed CNN's reporting. Some also focused on how a CNN reporter initially tweeted details of the disagreement between Biden and Zelensky before deleting the tweets amid pushback from the White House, and how other CNN reporters criticized the anonymous source that CNN used. Aside from CNN and Axios, reports from left-rated and center-rated sources typically focused on the White House's description of the phone call.

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