The President of the United States, thinking maybe that his microphone was extinguished, let out an insult that could betray his nervousness as the election of the mid-term. Shortly after, he called the journalist to assure him that his annoyance had “nothing personal”.
Le Monde with AFP
The scene happens on Monday, January 24 in the brouhaha of the end of a round table at the White House. Asked by a Fox News journalist – the preferred chain of the Conservatives – about inflation, the US president, Joe Biden, began by answering ironically: “It’s a great asset. More inflation.” And of Letting go, thinking maybe his microphone was off: “What big con …”
Speaking in his beard but without leaving the table, “said Joe Biden, or orchestrated a shot? Insult (“What was stupid sound of a bitch”) is in any case appeared as such in The transcription of the meeting sent Monday night by the White House .
This episode could be a new sign of the nervousness of the 79-year-old Democrat, confronted with an anemic popularity rating and difficult to relaunch its presidency. Inflation, at the highest level, for forty years, particularly affects Americans less than ten months of the mid-term elections, which are particularly complicated for the Democrats.
“Nothing personal staff. “
The exchange of Monday slice radically with the customary bonhomy of this president who promised to reconcile America and usually avoids excess language of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Joe Biden was immediately assaulted with criticism from the Republican camp. “so presidential” , has tweeted sarcastically the Elected very conservative Josh Hawley, while some of his confreres reproduced with ancient former calls to the moderation of Joe Biden.
Known for the incisive tone of his questions, the journalist concerned by the presidential insult, Peter Doocy, took the situation with humor. “No one has checked the veracity of his remarks,” he launched a few minutes later. In the evening, Peter Doocy reported on Fox News that The Chair had called it about an hour after the incident . “He told me” there is nothing personal, the friend, “said the journalist.
Last week, after a very long press conference when he had promised to go more in touch of the Americans, Joe Biden had already expressed his annoying by murmuring “what a silly question”, to a question launched by another Fox News journalist. Approximate as it is sometimes, he had given fuzzy words about Ukraine and the legitimacy of elections, who had forced his administration to make developments.
His predecessor Donald Trump was regularly vilified for his excess language and words at the media address. After a stormy exchange with the Republican billionaire, a journalist from the CNN chain had temporarily remove his accreditation at the White House.