Fox News’s Peter Doocy caused a commotion in the White House briefing room Thursday after he tripped over his words, mixing up President Biden with his Democratic predecessor, former President Obama.
Doocy questioned National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on an alleged rift between Biden and Vice President Harris on the administration’s response to the Israel-Gaza war.
In the line of questioning, he dubbed the commander in chief “President O-Biden,” sparking an eruption of laughter from Kirby and the press corps.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy speaks to President Joe Biden at the Arcosa Wind Towers, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, in Belen, N.M. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Doocy recovered, noting that the Harris story is big for Fox News. Kirby shot back that it’s only a big story for Fox and not other media, a dig at media bias.
Biden and Doocy have a rocky relationship, with the president twice calling out the Fox reporter over what he considered poor or leading questions. He once called Doocy a “stupid son of a bitch.”
The Harris story was first reported by Politico early Thursday and alleges that the vice president has urged the president to show more public concern for Palestinians in his reaction to the Israel-Hamas war.
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The White House has rejected the story outright, with spokespeople from Biden’s and Harris’s offices saying there is no difference in opinion between the pair.
“As I told Politico a week ago, ‘there is no daylight between the President and Vice President nor has there been,’ and media should be cautious and discerning about including anonymous ‘sources’ who are not privy to their private conversations,” Kirsten Allen, Harris’s press secretary, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Kirby reiterated the point in the exchange with Doocy.
“Last I looked, the vice president is part of the White House. She’s part of the team,” Kirby said. “If she wasn’t offering her advice and counsel to the president on innumerable issues, then it would be a story.”
“We’ve already pushed back on the premise of the story that there’s some sort of daylight between her and the president,” he continued.