President Joe Biden called Fox News White House reporter Peter Doocy “a stupid son of a bitch” Monday on a live microphone, after Doocy asked Biden whether inflation was a political risk for Democrats going into the midterms.
“Do you think inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms?” Doocy asked Biden during a White House event on Biden administration efforts to combat inflation.
Thinking his microphone was turned off, Biden responded sarcastically, “No, that’s a great asset. More inflation.”
He added: “What a stupid son of a bitch.”
Doocy made light of the exchange telling Fox: “I couldn’t even hear him because people were shouting at us 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?’ And they said, ‘He called you a stupid SOB.'”
Inflation is at a 40-year high, and there is little Biden can do in the short term to reverse macroeconomic trends like increased consumer demand and supply chain snarls in Asia, CNBC noted. However, Democrats are worried that voters will punish them at the ballot box during the midterms which will result in them losing both or at least one chamber in Congress.
