WASHINGTON. Daniele Compatangelo, La7 correspondent, has died in New York. According to Adnkronos, the death is believed to be linked to heart problems. He was 50 years old and of Piedmontese origin.
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The phone interview
Last month, the journalist had collected by phone the statements of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who, the day after the G7 in Evian, had stated that Giorgia Meloni had “begged him to take a photo with her. She wanted a photo with me so badly. I might not have done it, but I felt sorry for her.” The president’s words, collected by Compatangelo, had created a real political stir. “How is your prime minister? How is she?” Trump had asked the La7 correspondent, who in turn had asked the American president for a comment on the conversation he had with Meloni on the sidelines of the Evian summit. “She’s probably happy that I spoke to her. I wasn’t obliged to speak to her,” he had added.
Trump’s words, reached by phone by the program L’aria che tira, had provoked an immediate response from the Prime Minister: “Donald Trump’s statements are totally invented statements. I am frankly astonished – Meloni had commented – I am sorry that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West, with the enemies of the United States, with leaders with whom he proves to be much more accommodating. But one thing he must remember: Italy and I never beg.”
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The journalist
La7’s Tg confirmed the news in an article published on its website, in which the network expresses its condolences to the journalist’s relatives, friends, and colleagues. “Born in Italy in 1975 and residing in Washington, Daniele Compatangelo was an award-winning Italian-American foreign correspondent with over 25 years of experience. He interviewed US political leaders and prominent personalities worldwide, conducted journalistic investigations, and covered eight editions of the Olympic Games. An expert in European and Middle Eastern affairs, in Italy he collaborated with La7, Sky Tg24, and Tv2000. He was also a political analyst for the 24-hour Middle Eastern news channel Shams TV and for American Pulse. He worked in Sydney, Beijing, Vancouver, and other cities around the world and was a founding member of the White House Foreign Correspondents’ Association,” reads the La7 Tg website.
“Daniele Compatangelo, a collaborating journalist for La7 who became the network’s voice from the United States, died suddenly at the age of 50. It was for La7, in recent months, that Compatangelo had achieved two global scoops from the USA,” it is highlighted. In addition to the one relating to Trump’s words about the meeting with Meloni at the G7 in Evian, the reference is to a previous phone interview with the US president that had aired on the program Omnibus, about the G7’s help to the US in the war in Iran: “We didn’t need any support. So we won the war. It was a bit irrelevant, irrelevant! I have to go. I have an important meeting going on, but we won the war in Iran. We didn’t need their help. Thank you very much,” Trump had said.