On Sunday, BuzzFeed News’ breaking news deputy director David Mack arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, after traveling to the United Kingdom to renew his U.S. work visa. As a customs officer was processing his passport, he noticed his employer — and began to question him about his paper’s reporting on President Donald Trump.
Mack detailed the incident in a Twitter thread that night:
David Mack
✔@davidmackau
the immigration agent at JFK just saw that i work for buzzfeed and just grilled me for 10 minutes about the cohen story which was fun given he gets to decide whether to let me back into the country
David Mack
✔@davidmackau
he was 100% convinced mueller had personally given a press conference calling us fake news and i had to politely assure him that didn’t happen while also not wanting to piss him off any further
David Mack
✔@davidmackau
the funny part was he first said “oh BuzzFeed, you guys have had a rough time of late, huh” and at first i was like ty for showing so much concern about the layoffs, my good sir
David Mack
✔@davidmackau
anyway there were literally dozens of people waiting and i shit you not he was about to google the mueller response to see if it was televised or at least grill me about it
David Mack
✔@davidmackau
he did ask me repeatedly what if anything the mueller inquiry has done and when i told him about the dozens of charges he said “but no collusion” and i said that’s true but pointed out that like a dozen russians had also been charged with meddling. he was nonplussed about that.
“On behalf of the agency, I would like to extend our apologies to Mr. David Mack for the inappropriate remarks made to him during his CBP processing upon his arrival to the United States,” Meehan told BuzzFeed. “The officer’s comments do not reflect CBP’s commitment to integrity and professionalism of its workforce. In response to this incident, CBP immediately reviewed the event and has initiated the appropriate personnel inquiry and action.”