Joe Biden’s aversion to tough questions created a viral moment on Monday when he called Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a b*tch” after asking Biden a perfectly legitimate question about inflation.
“Do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?” Doocy asked.
“It’s a great asset—more inflation. What a stupid son of a b*tch,” the president snapped back.
The President of the United States just called Peter Doocy "a stupid son-of-a-bitch." pic.twitter.com/rQQo3n1IZ7
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 24, 2022
As PJM’s Cameron Arcand pointed out Monday, this wasn’t the first time Biden has been rude to a Fox News reporter.
Wasn’t Biden supposed to be different? Remember how Trump’s attacks on people in the media were treated as a constitutional crisis? “How dare Trump attack a member of the media?” or “This is an assault on the free press!”
Of course, Biden attacking a member of the press won’t be treated the same way as Trump doing the same thing. Still, Biden’s disrespect towards Fox News reporters nevertheless violates a key pledge he made on the first day of his presidency to treat people with respect.
“I am not joking when I say this, if you are ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect…talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot,” Biden promised. “On the spot. No ifs, ands, or buts.”
“Everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity,” he added. “That’s been missing in a big way the last four years.”
Biden hasn’t kept to this bedrock principle of his administration, but, according to CNN’s Jim Acosta, the dustup proves things have gotten better since Trump left office.
“Today we had the president of the United States refer to a reporter as an SOB. Ya know, Don [Lemon] you and I got called a lot worse back in the day,” Acosta said. “We never got an apology. I don’t remember that from the commander in chief. So maybe things are a little bit better to some extent.”
Except Biden didn’t apologize either. He did call Doocy after the hot mic moment went viral, but Doocy explained to Sean Hannity Monday night that Biden told him “It’s nothing personal, pal”; however when Hannity asked Doocy if Biden apologized, Doocy, without saying so directly, made it quite clear that Biden gave no apology. “He cleared the air, and I appreciated it. We had a nice call.”
Hannity noticed the evasive answer. “That’s not an answer to the apol—that doesn’t sound like an apology.”
“He said ‘it’s nothing personal, pal,’ and I told that I appreciated him reaching out.”
Doocy then noted that he didn’t need anyone to apologize to him. “He can call me whatever he wants as long as it gets him talking.”
‘NOTHING PERSONAL, PAL’: @pdoocy explains taking phone call from president after curse out. pic.twitter.com/W447ChX4NX
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 25, 2022
It seems like the only person who showed decency and dignity in this situation was Peter Doocy. Biden only made the call because his handlers knew he needed to, if for no other reason to put distance between himself and Trump. But he couldn’t even apologize. Maybe Biden couldn’t even remember what he’d said. Maybe Biden didn’t want to apologize and only called to give the appearance of being more dignified than Trump. But without a doubt, had Biden’s remark not been caught by the hot mic, no call would have been made.
Unfortunately, decency and dignity are not hallmarks of his administration. This is the same man who inappropriately looked at his watch during the dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base for the 13 U.S. service members who died at Kabul airport because of his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
We got three more years of this, folks.
