Journalist Sam Husseini says 'in no way expected' being hauled out of Blinken presser

By Press TV Website Staff

Sam Husseini, an independent journalist based in Washington, DC, says he was shocked at the treatment he received during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s farewell press conference on Thursday.

Speaking to the Press TV website, the veteran Palestinian-origin journalist said he expected being ignored when calling out questions—but not being manhandled and dragged out of the briefing room by armed guards.

A video of Husseini, a familiar face at US State Department press briefings and a well-known media figure in Washington, went viral on Thursday, showing him being forcibly removed from the press conference.

"I'm a journalist, not a potted plant," he was heard saying as officers tried to remove him and he gripped the table where he sat.

"Criminal! Why aren't you in The Hague?" he shouted at the outgoing top US diplomat, even as he was being dragged out following the intervention of State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

Husseini has been an outspoken critic of the Joe Biden administration’s support for Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza, which has killed nearly 47,000 people, most of them children and women, so far.

He has consistently documented Zionist war crimes in Palestine committed with US-made weapons. Yet, even with his history of challenging authority, he was stunned by the response to his questions at the conference.

"I was expecting to call out questions and be ignored. I’ve posted past examples on my X (formerly Twitter) feed. I in no way expected this," he told the Press TV website.

In a Substack post following the incident, Husseini noted that his intention was to press Blinken with tough questions at every opportunity during the press conference.

The issues he intended to raise included inquiries about the US obstruction of the May 24 International Court of Justice (ICJ) order, its refusal to apply the Geneva Conventions to Gaza, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusations of extermination and genocide against the Israeli regime in Gaza.

The veteran journalist told the Press TV website that Blinken "orchestrated the imperial Israeli genocide of the last year, sabotaged the Genocide Convention, the Geneva Convention, and other parts of international law to achieve it."

"See my questions on my Substack. One in particular was about Blinken’s family which is filled with Zionist operators. His step father was connected with Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, both connected to Mossad," he stated.

Despite his known credentials and reputation as a veteran journalist, mainstream American media—including CNN—dismissed Husseini’s presence at Blinken's press conference as "cringeworthy heckling by activists."

"CNN and co obviously know who I am, they know I ask very well-researched questions," he told the Press TV website.

"They are simply trying to dismiss my work to hinder the US public from seeing the reality of the slaughter coming from US policy and they don’t want people to know what actual adversarial journalism looks like."

When asked if this incident would set a precedent for how tough, critical questions—especially those concerning US policy on Israel—are handled in the future, Husseini said he is uncertain about the long-term ramifications.

During the press conference, he was joined by Max Blumenthal, chief editor of The Grayzone, who also confronted Blinken.

“Why did you allow the Holocaust of our time to happen? How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide," he was heard asking.

“You too, Matt. You smirked through the whole thing. Every day. You smirked through a genocide," he added, referring to Miller.

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