CNN’s Tapper defends Doocy after outburst from Biden

CNN’s Jake Tapper defended Fox News reporter Peter Doocy after President Biden was heard on a hot microphone on Monday calling him a “stupid son of a bitch” during an event at the White House. 

“The current president just called a reporter a dumb son of a bitch today,” he told late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel when he was asked if his life “is boring now” with former President Trump out of office. 

“I don’t think any president should be calling any reporter a dumb son of a bitch,” Tapper added, noting that Doocy’s question was “fairly anodyne.” 

Doocy on Monday asked Biden if he thought “inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms.” 

“No, it’s a great asset,” the president responded. “More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.” 

Tapper told Kimmel he found the outburst from Biden inappropriate. 

“Standards for decency don’t have to do with whether or not you like the people who are being treated poorly,” Tapper said. “It has to do with the standard. And, yes, I realize that Peter’s channel would never come to my defense like that, so it is what it is.” 

Biden later called Doocy and told him it was “nothing personal,” the Fox reporter said. 

“He said, ‘It’s nothing personal, pal,’ and I told him that I appreciated him reaching out. … The world is on the brink of like World War III right now with all this stuff going on. I appreciate that the president took a couple minutes out this evening while he was still at the desk to give me a call and clear the air,” Doocy said late on Monday night.

“But you know what? I don’t need anybody to apologize to me. He can call me whatever he wants,” Doocy added. 

On CNN on Monday evening, Tapper’s colleague Jim Acosta, who was a White House correspondent during Trump’s time in office, joked that he “never got an apology” from Trump for his relentless attacks on the network.