Ex-White House aide Ducklo to join Biden campaign

T.J. Ducklo, a former White House aide and the national press secretary for President Biden’s 2020 campaign, will join Biden’s reelection campaign as a senior communications adviser.

Ducklo will be based in Delaware and officially join in mid-July, the campaign confirmed to The Tennessee Lookout. Ducklo is the chief communications officer for Nashville Mayor John Cooper (D).

After the 2020 campaign, Ducklo was hired as deputy press secretary in the White House before resigning in February 2021 amid controversy over threats he made to a reporter.

He warned then-Politico reporter Tara Palmeri in an off-the-record conversation that he would “destroy her” if she published a story about his then-relationship with a reporter for Axios, Alexi McCammond, Vanity Fair reported. Ducklo also reportedly made misogynistic comments and accused Palmeri of being “jealous” of their relationship.

When there was talk of Ducklo joining the campaign in May, some Biden allies pushed back on the idea. Michael LaRosa, the former press secretary to first lady Jill Biden, accused the president’s team of being “tone-deaf” “in the post #MeToo, anti-bulling world,” Politico’s West Wing Playbook reported. But others, such as senior adviser Anita Dunn, defended him to Politico and said he took responsibility for his mistake.

The Biden campaign has announced other hires this week in the communications office.

Michael Tyler, the former national press secretary at the Democratic National Committee, will be its communications director. He is slated to start on the campaign full time at the beginning of next month.

And Rob Flaherty, Biden’s digital director, is expected to join the campaign after departing the White House this week, The Associated Press reported.

The communications team already includes Kevin Munoz, former assistant press secretary at the White House, who is now a spokesperson for the campaign.

Biden officially launched his reelection campaign in April through a video message.