Always make sure at the end of a press conference that the microphone is switched off. Despite his long political experience, the President of the United States has probably not learned this elementary lesson. At the end of a round table attended by journalists on Monday, Joe Biden, certainly believing he was talking to himself, thus dropped a “stupid asshole” (“stupid son of a bitch”, in the original version) about a Fox News reporter.
The scene is likely to make people talk. While the press officer tries to evacuate the journalists from the East Room where the White House tenant’s press conferences are traditionally held, a representative of Rupert Murdoch’s chain calls out to the current president. He has just met the members of its competition council to put in place a policy to fight galloping inflation in the United States. Steve Doocy launches out: “Do you think that inflation is a political handicap? he asks the American president, without getting a direct answer. The rest, only viewers of C-Span, the equivalent of the Parliamentary Channel in the United States, could hear it. “It’s a great asset. More inflation… What a stupid asshole,” he quips.
The streak comes as Joe Biden comes under heavy criticism after just over a year in office. While the Democrat was elected on the promise, in particular, of a return to normality, in particular with the press, after four years of the Trump presidency, this insult still tarnishes his image somewhat and ironically brings him closer to his predecessor. Customary of invectives to the address of the press, Donald Trump had in particular described a journalist as “crazy with low IQ” and suspended the accreditation of the CNN correspondent at the White House during his mandate.