Peter Doocy of Fox News caused a commotion in the White House briefing room Thursday after stumbling over his words, confusing President Biden with his Democratic predecessor, former President Obama.
Doocy interviewed National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on an alleged breakup between Biden and Vice President Harris over the administration’s response to the Israel-Gaza war.
During questions, he nicknamed the commander in chief “President O-Biden,” prompting an eruption of laughter from Kirby and the press.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy speaks to President Joe Biden at the Arcosa Wind Towers, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, in Belen, New Mexico (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Doocy recovered, noting that Harris’ story is important to Fox News. Kirby countered that this was just a big story for Fox and not for other media outlets, an attack on media bias.
Biden and Doocy have a difficult relationship, with the president twice calling out the Fox reporter for what he considered poor or leading questions. He once called Doocy a “stupid son of a bitch.”
Harris’ story was first reported by Politico early Thursday and alleges that the vice president urged the president to be more publicly concerned about the Palestinians in his response to the war between Israel and Hamas.
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The White House has flatly rejected the story, with spokespeople for both Biden and Harris’ offices saying there was no difference of opinion between the two.
“As I told Politico a week ago, ‘there is no daylight between the president and the vice president and there hasn’t been,’ and the media needs to do exercise caution and discretion in including anonymous ‘sources’ who are not privy to their private conversations,” Kirsten Allen, Harris’ press secretary, written thethe platform formerly known as Twitter.
Kirby reiterated this point during the exchange with Doocy.
“Last time I looked, the vice president is in the White House. She’s part of the team,” Kirby said. “If she didn’t offer advice to the president on countless issues, then it would be a story.”
“We’ve already pushed back against the assumption that there would be some sort of daylight between her and the president,” he continued.
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