(Photo by Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto via AP)When White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to own a reporter with a “your mom” diss two weeks ago, his employer, HuffPost, spun the punchline into profit that boosted memberships by 66 percent — in just one day. The exchange began on Oct. 17 when HuffPost correspondent Shirish Dáte asked who had recommended Budapest as the site for President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisement Advertisement“Your mom did,” Leavitt texted back. “Serious questions deserve better than middle school humor.”Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisement Advertisement“I was kind of like, this is a serious war that’s going on that has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians in their homes,” Dáte told Times’ media reporter Erik Wemple. In tweets after the Times profile went live on Wednesday, he shared some even more snippy exchanges with White House comms staffers.
