President Joe Biden ended a meeting with the press Monday with a fun candid moment: calling Fox News’ Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a bitch.”
Biden had just wrapped a speech about economic competition and as the reporters were leaving, a few yelled out questions in hopes that Biden would comment, which he did not. The last question came from Doocy, who shouted from across the room, “Will you take questions on inflation then? Do you think inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms?”
Biden, presumably thinking his microphone had been turned off, quietly deadpanned, “No, it’s a great asset. More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.”
At the end of a Biden photo op, when reporters shouted Q’s hoping he’d respond, Fox’s Peter Doocy asked, “Do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?” Biden deadpanned: “It’s a great asset—more inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.” pic.twitter.com/Tt4ZVz5Ynj
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 24, 2022
There’s been some speculation as to whether Biden might have known his mic was still on and wanted to be heard. Honestly, I think that would be great. I hope he did!
honestly would pull Biden up a solid 10 points if he whispered “this motherfucker” every few days https://t.co/IaFQVgijbk
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) January 24, 2022
As you might expect, Biden’s critics—the “Let’s Go Brandon” crew—are bringing up past instances of outrage over Trump’s attacks on reporters, asking why Biden’s comment isn’t getting the same reaction.
Opinion | I was a lifelong liberal Democrat. Then Joe Biden cussed out a Fox News reporter.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 24, 2022
There are a lot of reasons for that, most of which boils down to the fact that Biden’s under-his-breath insult wasn’t part of a years-long campaign to discredit and endanger journalists.
But it’s also because Peter Doocy, like the rest of his Fox News colleagues, isn’t a real journalist. He’s an annoying propaganda pusher. He is, in reality, a stupid son of a bitch.
Reminder that this Peter Doocy / John McCain clip exists — “Why would you ask something so dumb?” pic.twitter.com/ijCnJTmD3x
— Chris Strider (@stridinstrider) January 24, 2022
Still, Biden apparently felt the need to apologize and Doocy says the president called him within an hour of making the comment—even though Doocy also says he didn’t even hear it at the time.
“He said, ‘It’s nothing personal, pal,’” Doocy recounted to Sean Hannity later that evening. “We went back and forth, and we were talking about just kind of moving forward.”
“He didn’t want to take any questions off-topic,” Doocy said. “And now we’ll just wait to see if the White House has to bleep that out.”
For the record, the White House has not bleeped anything out, and the comment was recorded in the official transcript of the speech:
image: whitehouse.gov
(image: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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