On Tuesday, reporters asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki about President Joe Biden’s latest outburst, as a follow up to a story that may point to deeper issues than a one-time off-color remark.
During a press conference on Monday, Biden called Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a b****” after he posed a question regarding the potential political impact of inflation on the 2022 election.
Psaki was asked, “Does the President regret saying what he said about Peter, can you shed some light if you have had any conversations with him today about what happened last night?”
Psaki responded:
“Well, I would say what’s most important, and Peter’s sitting here, so this is kind of a funny thing. But the President, the President called Peter, and [Peter Doocy] confirmed this, so this is only why I’m speaking to this. And if you have private conversations with the President, I will assure you I’m not going to convey that on your behalf. But Peter spoke to this, the President called him, he conveyed to him that ‘it was nothing personal, man,’ and also acknowledged that all of you are going to ask him a range of questions. So I think that speaks for itself. Thank you, everyone. Hopefully, I did that justice.”
Doocy, who was unaware of President Biden’s remarks at the time, commented on the situation during multiple interviews on Fox News yesterday.
Good-natured about it, Doocy told Jesse Watters: “Yeah, nobody has fact-checked him yet and said it’s not true.”
After Fox News host Sean Hannity suggested the President could have 20 minutes on his show to apologize, Doocy told Hannity the President had made overtures to smooth things over:
“After years of clips of the president and I kind of mixing it up on the campaign trail and during the transition and here at the White House, within about an hour of that exchange, he called my cellphone and he said, ‘It’s nothing personal, pal.'”
Doocy continued:
“And we went back and forth, and we were talking about just kind of moving forward, and I made sure to tell him that I’m always gonna try to ask something different than what everybody else is asking. And he said, ‘You got to.’ And that’s a quote from the President, so I’ll keep doing it.”
When asked if Biden directly apologized, Doocy replied, “He cleared the air and I appreciated it, we had a nice call.”
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