White House press secretary Jen Psaki reportedly said Fox News fields questions to correspondent Peter Doocy that make him sound like a “stupid son of a bitch.”
Update: After this story was published, Fox News provided this statement: “In his role as White House correspondent, Peter Doocy’s job is to elicit truth from power for the American public. His questions are his own, he is a terrific reporter and we are extremely proud of his work.”
According to Politico reporter Eugene Daniels, Psaki made the comment about Doocy during a live recording of Pod Save America when she was asked if “Peter Doocy is a stupid son of a bitch or does he just play one on TV.”
“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 bitch,” she reportedly replied.
Daniels also reported Psaki noted how gracious Peter Doocy was toward Biden after the president was caught calling him a “stupid son of a bitch on a hot mic.”
The hot mic occurred during a White House press conference this past January when Peter Doocy asked the president if rising inflation will severely hurt the Democrats in the coming mid-terms.
“Do you think inflation is a political liability in the mid-terms?” Doocy asked the president.
“It’s a great asset,” the president sarcastically responded. “More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.”
Doocy laughed it off shortly after the exchange during an appearance on Fox News:
As was true at the time of the question, while inflation might seem like an obvious political liability for the coming mid-terms, the Democrats did not exactly express much concern over the problem, to the point of often characterizing it as a rich people problem that average voters do not care about.
New York Times contributor Sarah Jeong tweeted last November:
All the stuff you see about inflation in the news is driven by rich people flipping their shit because their parasitic assets aren’t doing as well as they’d like and they’re scared that unemployment benefits + stimmy checks + 15 minimum wage + labor shortage is why.
Likewise in November of last year, Rakeen Mabud, chief economist of the Groundwork Collective, argued that inflation was actually a “good sign.” This sentiment was echoed by Anne Price of the left-wing group Insight Center.
New York Times columnist David Brooks also argued in November of last year that America needed inflation “as a society to heal.”
“I have high tolerance for inflation in this kind of economy. Because I think we need it as a society to heal,” said Brooks. “But if it turns out to be accelerating 1970s inflation, that becomes its own monster.”
In an op-ed for CNN Business last December, Alison Morrow wrote that “inflation can actually be good for everyday Americans and bad for rich people.”