Something unusual happened on Monday. A fed-up president of the United States took a moment during a press conference to call Fox News’ Peter Doocy (who is no stranger to receiving a “Psaki Bomb” from Press Secretary Jen Psaki) a “son of a b*tch.” Some didn’t mind the sentiment, since Peter is a persistent one and follows the far-right talking points, but it wasn’t the classiest move that Joe Biden’s ever pulled, and CNN’s Jake Tapper wasn’t about to cosign.
“Do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?” Doocy had inquired, to which Biden bristled with sarcasm: “That’s a great asset. More inflation. What a stupid son of a b*tch.” Granted, Doocy did reveal that Biden later called to apologize, but still, Jake Tapper wasn’t too impressed by this public display of sarcasm on Biden’s behalf. At around the 7:00 mark above, Tapper gives his take during a visit with Jimmy Kimmel.
“I don’t think any president should be calling any journalist a dumb son of a b*tch. And to be fair to Peter Doocy, the question was fairly anodyne.” Kimmel (who had earlier practically celebrated the insult in his monologue) pushed back, ever so slightly while mentioning that Fox News classifies Tapper as “a mouthpiece for the Democrats, and yet here you are defending Peter Doocy, who, as far as I have been able to tell, is indeed a dumb son of a b*tch.”
Tapper disagreed on that last point. He further conceded that Doocy would probably not defend him, if the roles were reversed, yet Tapper insisted, “Standards for decency don’t have to do with whether or not you like the people that are being treated poorly.”
It’s all very blunt stuff, and on a related note Fox and Friends definitely discussed the insult heard ’round the world. Steve Doocy wasn’t thrilled about the situation but remarked, “Peter’s a big boy.” Watch below.
“Peter is a big boy.” — Fox News’ Steve Doocy on President Biden calling his son a “stupid son of a bitch” yesterday pic.twitter.com/TuO8SMIHyi
— The Recount (@therecount) January 25, 2022