President Joe Biden was caught on a live microphone Monday calling a Fox News journalist a “stupid son of a bitch” on the sidelines of a White House photo opportunity.
As journalists were leaving the room after the event, a reporter from Fox News, the television channel that caters to conservatives, asked whether inflation is a political liability.
The Democratic leader, possibly unaware that his microphone was still on, began by deadpanning: “It’s a great asset. More inflation.”
And then muttered, “What a stupid son of a bitch,” before glancing briefly down.
A pool reporter who was in the room at the time admitted to not being able to hear what Biden actually said over the noise, but he added that he would “direct your attention to video of the event if you are curious how the president really feels about being asked about inflation from Fox’s Peter Doocy.”
This is not the first time that Doocy, the son of Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy, has been accused of saying something stupid by a prominent politician.
After Doocy asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), “Has your relationship with the president frayed to the point that you’re not going to support anything that he comes to you and asks for?” on October 18, 2017, the Arizona Republican responded, “Why would you say something that stupid? Why would you ask something that dumb, heh? … That’s a dumb question.”
Doocy later shrugged off Biden’s insult in an interview on Fox.
“Yeah nobody has fact-checked him yet and said it’s not true,” he said, nonchalantly.
Doocy later said that Biden called him within the hour and said: “It’s nothing personal, pal.”
When Biden has gaffed before the White House has rushed to explain or roll back his comments but this time, aides appear to have no qualms about owning it, putting out a transcript of the event that included the comment — thereby ensuring it passes into the official historical record.
“Just adds a certain something,” tweeted Katie Rogers, White House correspondent for the New York Times, with a screengrab of the transcript.
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