White House press secretary Jen Psaki has defended herself after she was recorded asking if Fox News’ Peter Doocy was a ‘stupid son of a b***h’ or just played one on TV.
On Friday night, Psaki stressed that she was not deliberately attempting to insult the 34-year-old Fox News White House correspondent.
‘Full video shows I also told a story about Peter’s grace last night and made very clear I was not being critical of him or any reporter at Fox, and instead was critical of the slant of some Fox topics. He is doing his job. I am doing mine. We debate. We disagree. I respect that.’ Psaki tweeted.
Her candid comments came during an episode of the podcast Pod Save America in Washington, D.C., that was recorded on Thursday night.
‘He works for a network that provides people with questions that, nothing personal to any individual including Peter Doocy, but might make anyone sound like a stupid son of a b***h,’ Psaki said.
The episode containing her assessment was released online Friday.
President Joe Biden earlier this year was caught on a hot mic calling Doocy a ‘stupid son of a b***h’ after the reporter asked Biden if inflation was a political liability for him.
On Friday, CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter came to Psaki’s defense saying she’s possibly just ‘tired of all this’ after two years on the job and ‘maybe sharing how she really feels.’
‘I think the point she is trying to say there is that Fox pushes storylines that are sometimes nonsense. Doocy does that in the briefing room.
‘But still, she did it in a way playing to a liberal audience, that certainly is going to cause a lot of outrage from Fox. Probably for the next few days, right?’
Stelter described Psaki as someone simply speaking her mind.
‘I think Jen Psaki is kind of like – you remember in your senior year, spring of your senior year, when you are about to graduate, and you are just tired of all this?
‘I think we are seeing that from Jen Psaki.’
Fox News Channel’s John Roberts, a former White House correspondent, criticized Psaki on Twitter saying: ‘Note to Press Sec: Peter Doocy makes the decisions on what topics he wants to quiz you on, and develops the questions himself. His philosophy is a basic tenet of journalism. Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.’
‘If that makes all of us “stupid s.o.b.s”, so be it,’ Roberts added.
During the podcast recording on Thursday night, Psaki had added: ‘Can I tell a nice Peter Doocy story?’
She recalled how after Biden knocked Doocy on the hot mic, on January 24, the president called the reporter to apologize.
Doocy was then asked about the phone call on Sean Hannity’s show that night.
‘So he went on TV that night and I actually watched Sean Hannity to see what he said. My mind was like really bending and hurting,’ Psaki recalled.
‘If you can imagine, it was like flames and it was like “Crime! Crime! Crime!” and Kamala – the vice president is like walking through the flames and crime.
‘I don’t even know what was happening.
‘But Sean Hannity asked him about, you know, what the president had said and what he said back.
‘And he could have been like, “He’s a son of a b***h” or “I’m standing up for …” whatever, he could have said anything.
‘And instead he said, you know he called me, we had a really nice conversation, I’m just asking my questions, he’s doing his job,’ Psaki continued.
‘So I will say, that was a moment of grace – you don’t have to like everything Peter Doocy says or does, but that was certainly a moment of grace by Peter Doocy.’
This is an excerpt from Daily Mail.
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