Calling it fake news and getting in hot water with renowned Dutch journalists …
The new US ambassador to the Netherlands – in trouble over a fake news scandal – clashed on Wednesday with Dutch reporters who told him: “This is the Netherlands, you have to answer questions.”
On his first official day in the job, Pete Hoekstra was taken to task over controversial comments he made in 2015 in which he said that the “Islamic movement” was creating chaos in Europe and suggested that extremists were burning politicians and cars in the Netherlands.
At a press conference shortly after presenting his credentials to Dutch King Willem-Alexander at a palace in The Hague, Hoekstra was repeatedly asked about the comments he made at a 2015 conference, which made headlines last year when he described his own words to a Dutch reporter as fake news. Hoekstra later denied using the phrase fake news.
More below the fold …
Hoekstra said on Wednesday he did not want to revisit the issue – but that did not stop Dutch reporters from pressing unsuccessfully for a clarification.
One reporter told him: “This is the Netherlands, you have to answer questions,” while another asked if the ambassador could name a politician who had been set on fire in recent years.
Dutch journalists go global by `roasting’ new US ambassador | Dutch News – English |
The US and other foreign media have reported widely on the `roasting’ the new US ambassador to the Netherlands received from Dutch reporters when he tried to brush off statements about no-go areas and politicians being burned.
Pete Hoekstra gave his first news conference on Wednesday at which he was repeatedly asked by journalists about his claims that there are no go areas in the Netherlands and that cars and politicians are being set on fire because of radical Islam.
Hoekstra made the comments during a speech at a conference organised by the right-wing David Horowitz Freedom Center in 2015, which has donated over €150,000 to Dutch anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders. [What do you mean, not meddling in Dutch politics? – Oui]
Today Dutch press welcomed @petehoekstra as new ambassador to the Netherlands. In 2015 Hoekstra said Dutch"politicians are being burned" (not true). The only one who did get burned today is… Hoekstra himself. By refusing to answer our questions. pic.twitter.com/Dv2aalbhDP
— Roel Geeraedts (@RGjournalist) January 10, 2018
Before Trump and Hoekstra …
○ John Adams, the first emissary to the Netherlands of that young new country in 1780
○ Holland and the American colonies were united against Britain
○ Myths of the American Revolution
