MSNBC anchors Stephanie Ruhle and Ali Velshi issued on-air corrections on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, after incorrectly reporting that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard referred to President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as “very good friends.”

During their shows, the anchors clarified that Gabbard was actually speaking about Trump’s relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, not Putin, during her interview with an Indian television network.

“Last night we reported on excerpts of an interview between the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and an Indian TV news network in which she said that Trump was good friends with a world leader. We said that world leader was Vladimir Putin. But the full interview shows that Gabbard was referring to Trump and Indian Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi. Cleared that up,” Ruhle stated during her MSNBC show.

Velshi, substituting for Lawrence O’Donnell on “The Last Word,” provided a similar correction.

The Associated Press also published and then retracted a similar story with a misleading headline. The news organization acknowledged the mistake, removed the original story, and issued a corrected version with an editor’s note for transparency.

Gabbard also commented on Trump’s upcoming call with Putin, stating that the president was “looking forward to success” in the conversation, but she did not describe their relationship as a friendship. She criticized the Biden administration’s approach to the Russia-Ukraine war, suggesting that under Trump, there was an “unwavering commitment to peace” and more progress toward resolving the conflict.

Prior to the correction, Ruhle criticized Gabbard for appearing “disconnected with the majority of Americans” based on the misreported comments. Similarly, on “The Last Word” on Monday, guest host Jonathan Capehart referenced the erroneous report in a question posed to Michael McFaul, an MSNBC international affairs analyst, asking: “Gabbard is saying out loud that U.S. and Russia relations are a shared mission. How dangerous is that?”

Gabbard’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Alexa Henning, responded strongly to the Associated Press headline on social media platform X.

“The @AP is total trash. DNI @TulsiGabbard was referring to PM Modi & President Trump and this is the headline they publish. This is why no one trusts the maliciously incompetent and purposefully bias [sic] media. If this isn’t a clear example of pushing a solely political narrative, then nothing is,” Henning wrote.

This incident occurs amid ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and mainstream media outlets. Lawrence O’Donnell, the regular host of “The Last Word,” recently announced he needed a week off from hosting his program, citing exhaustion over covering Trump’s presidency.

The misreporting of Gabbard’s comments also occurs as the Trump administration navigates complex relationships with Russia and Ukraine. Trump and Vice President JD Vance recently had a contentious meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.

Trump also had a phone call this week with Putin to discuss a partial ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war, an issue that has been at the forefront of U.S. foreign policy discussions since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

The full context of Gabbard’s interview shows her discussing how Trump and Modi are engaged in high-level discussions on shared interests and diplomatic initiatives, emphasizing bilateral cooperation between the United States and India rather than making claims about Trump’s relationship with Putin.