President Joe Biden got caught calling Fox News’ Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a b—h” on a hot mic on Monday, and reached out to the reporter to “clear the air” after the incident.
Biden got testy with journalists after meeting with the Competition Council to figure out how to lower surging prices across the country. He snapped when one of them designed to ask a question about a call he had earlier in the day, related to the escalating tension between Ukraine and Russia.
“The only reason I don’t like doing this because you never report on why it’s called a meeting because you never report on why I’ve called a meeting, and this is important” Biden complained.
“Will you take questions on inflation then?” Doocy chimed in. “Do you think inflation will be a political liability ahead of the midterms?”
As reporters were swept out of the room, Biden was recorded saying, “That’s a great asset, more inflation. What a stupid son of a b—h.”
Doocy didn’t even hear the comment, as reporters were shouted at to get out.
“But somebody came up to me in the briefing room a few minutes later and said, ‘did you hear what the President said?’ And I said, ‘no, what?’ They said, ‘he called you a stupid SOB, and I said, ‘did he say SOB?’ And the person said, ‘no,’” he reported to Fox News anchor Jesse Watters.
“So, Doocy, I think the president’s right, you are a stupid SOB,” Watters quipped.
“Yeah, nobody has fact-checked him yet and said it’s not true,” Doocy cracked back.
During an appearance on “Hannity” later in the evening, the reporter revealed that Biden had personally called him about an hour after his harsh remarks.
“He said ‘It’s nothing personal, pal,'” Doocy remarked. “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.”
Hannity questioned if Biden had actually apologized, but Doocy said “He cleared the air and I appreciate it, we had a nice call.”
Hannity pointed out that it still didn’t “sound like an apology” from the President, but Doocy was satisfied with the exchange.
“Hey Sean, the world is on the brink of, like, World War III right now with all of this stuff going on,” he told the host. “I appreciate that the president took a couple of minutes out this evening while he was still at this desk to give me a call and clear the air.”
“I don’t need anybody to apologize to me. He can call me whatever he wants as long as it gets him talking!” Doocy concluded. “I think that’s enough. That’s enough. So we can move on. We can now move forward. There will be years- three to seven years of opportunities to ask him about different stuff.”
