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MINOT, N.D. — In a hot mic moment, President Joe Biden got caught calling Peter Doocy, the White House correspondent for Fox News, a "stupid son of a b----."
Suddenly, the "let's go Brandon" crowd is all about civility.
The president of the United States shouldn't be talking that way to a member of the press corps. Even a reporter for an organization that acted as a de facto propaganda ministry for President Biden's predecessor and opponent in the 2020 election.
At the end of a Biden photo op, when reporters shouted Q's hoping he'd respond, Fox's Peter Doocy asked, "Do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?" Biden deadpanned: "It's a great asset—more inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch." pic.twitter.com/Tt4ZVz5Ynj
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 24, 2022
Is Doocy a "stupid son of a b----"? I'll leave that to your estimation, dear audience, but we should all agree that it's beneath the dignity of someone elected to the White House to behave that way.
At least where people can see and hear it.
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And to his credit, President Biden seems to recognize that, unlike his predecessor.
"He said ‘It’s nothing personal, pal,'" Doocy recounted in an interview yesterday , describing a call the president made to him to apologize. "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."
We shouldn't feel obliged to congratulate grownups with hugely consequential jobs for behaving like grownups, but given the times we're living in, that's where we're at.
Score one for the grownups.
But back to the reaction to this kerfuffle from Trump World. Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump's most important advisers during his years in the White House, said Biden's outburst toward Doocy was evidence of his "terrible temper."
Shall we review Donald Trump's track record with intemperance?
Trump once called FBI leaders "human scum" and labeled a CNN reporter "brainless."
He called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a "dumb son of a b----."
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MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd was "sleeping son of a b----."
On the same day a bomb was sent to CNN, Trump called the news media the "enemy of the people."
Trump once suggested that MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough may have murdered someone , he called a top general a "f------ idiot" during a speech in Florida , and said "f--- him" about former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu .
That's by no means an exhaustive list of Trump's temper tantrums, but you get my point.
And did Trump make a habit of calling these people he insulted to apologize? No, he did not.
So tell me again how President Biden's propensity for foul-mouthed frustration is a liability, while Trump's was a feature.
Not that Biden's antics are defensible. Forget the outburst, let's think about the things he's said on purpose in scripted speeches. During a recent address in Georgia, in support of the now-defunct election bill Democrats have been flogging for months, Biden suggested that Republicans who support election laws such as those implemented by Georgia were modern iterations of ugly historical figures such as George Wallace and Bull Connor.
That those men were Democrats is deeply ironic, but not quite as ironic as voting in Georgia being, even under the new laws, an easier process than voting in Biden's home state of Delaware .
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If Trump and his followers are guilty of a "big lie" about the supposedly "stolen" 2020 election, Democrats are equally guilty of a "big lie" about supposedly racist voter laws which only concern them when they exist in red states.
"How come Democrats only complain about the strict voting regulations in red states, in Texas and Georgia, and not in Democratic states like New York?" CNN's Jake Tapper asked recently .
Good question.
It's probably the same reason why Republicans loved foul-mouthed Trump, but go fainting into the bushes when Biden gets feisty.
