Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Feb. 12, 2025

February 12, 2025 · The White House · 0:36:52

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt briefed members of the media at the White House on Feb. 12, 2025, carried on the White House channel. She announced that the President had spoken at length with President Putin of Russia that morning and had just gotten off the phone with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, reading the President’s statement that both leaders wanted to make peace and that a meeting was being set up for Friday in Munich, where Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would lead the delegation, as she stated it.

Leavitt also marked the return the previous night of Marc Fogel, the American teacher detained by Russia, saying Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the President’s national security team had helped negotiate the exchange that secured his release, and noting that Fogel’s 95-year-old mother had been slated to join the President on stage at the July 13 Butler, Pennsylvania rally. She cited new CBS News polling, as she stated it, that 70 percent of Americans said the President was following through on what he pledged during the campaign.

Why it matters

The Feb. 12 briefing is the administration’s announcement of the opening of the Russia-Ukraine peace track - the Putin and Zelenskyy calls and the Munich delegation - delivered from the podium the day it happened.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the Munich meeting announced here (Vance and Rubio leading the delegation) and the peace-deal commitment as stated on Feb. 12, 2025.

Sources: The White House, “Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Feb. 12, 2025” (YouTube, 2025-02-12) - official description and broadcast transcript as aired.