derailment or strategy
“What a son of a bitch”: US President Joe Biden rumbles against Fox News and other media
At war with Fox News in particular: US President Joe Biden
© Saul Loeb / AFP
Although Donald Trump ventured into new dimensions, the relationship between US presidents and the press was rarely smooth. Joe Biden is no exception either, as is now evident. The President is feeling the pressure of the midterm elections.
When it comes to scolding disagreeable journalists, US President Joe Biden cannot hold a candle to his Republican predecessor Donald Trump. But the current strongman in the White House has recently shown that the free press can get on his nerves. Unsurprisingly, it is primarily journalists from the Trump-friendly broadcaster Fox News who cannot please him. In one instance, Biden became downright abusive.
The president’s ire was met by Peter Doocy, who asked whether Biden believed rising inflation ahead of the upcoming midterm election would likely put a political strain on the president. “No, it’s a great asset,” Biden replied sarcastically – and then sent in a very unpresidential manner: “More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.” It was unclear whether Biden thought the microphone was switched off at the moment.
Joe Biden: insult and apology
On the other hand, it is clear that it was not Biden’s only recent blunder towards journalists. A question from Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich last week as to why, given the increasing tensions in the Ukraine crisis, Biden is “waiting” for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “take the first step” instead of taking action himself, Biden responded with the sentence “What kind of… a silly question”. Biden even completely ignored questions from reporters from other ultra-conservative media outlets such as the “New York Post” or the TV channel Newsmax.
But the White House chief correspondent of the TV news broadcaster CNN, which is closer to the Democrats, has already gotten her fat off. After a critical question about a meeting with Putin, Kaitlan Collins had to be barked at: “What the hell do you do all the time? (…) If you don’t understand that, you’re in the wrong business.” What fundamentally distinguishes Biden from his predecessor Trump: The President approached both Kaitlan Collins and Peter Doocy and apologized over the phone for his freaks. This even led to Fox News man Doocy publicly downplaying the quarrel. “He called my cell phone and said, ‘That’s nothing personal, mate,'” Doocy reported on the show from Sean Hannity, a Fox host almost friendly with Donald Trump.
“No president should call a reporter a son of a bitch”
“I don’t think any president should call any reporter a stupid son of a bitch,” prominent CNN anchorman Jake Tapper said on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. It is puzzling as to why Biden is increasingly resorting to this means, although he wanted to clearly differentiate himself from his predecessor, especially when dealing with the press, as his spokeswoman Jen Psaki emphasized again to Peter Doocy after the gaffe.
Todd Belt, a professor of political management at George Washington University, believes there will be a change in strategy given the difficult midterms ahead. In mid-term elections, the Democrats run the risk of losing their majorities in Congress, which would severely hamper the president’s ability to govern. Biden’s verbal rejection is a signal to his own party that the tone should now become more combative. “That’s what a lot of Democrats want,” Belt told the political portal The Hill. They are frustrated that their president has recently been working too much in the background. A combative tone would probably also be appropriate because of the current poll numbers. The Pew Research Center recently reported approval ratings for Biden at 41 percent – a record low.
However, Belt’s assessment is contradicted by the fact that the White House downplayed the president’s quarrel with journalists, according to Washington. Political analyst Brit Hume also doesn’t think attacks on the press will help Democrats and Biden. “It hasn’t helped Donald Trump,” Hume told The Hill, “and I don’t think it will help this president to do that.”
Sources: The Hill, FoxNews, Pew Research Center, Jimmy Kimmel Live