President Joe Biden did not call on Fox News’ Peter Doocy during the president’s first press conference, an omission critics noticed given Doocy’s proclivity for asking what the president says are “tough questions.”
What are the details?
Shortly after the conference ended Thursday, Doocy went live on Fox News and displayed a “binder full of questions” he had prepared for the event. The White House correspondent said that he wanted to ask, in particular, about Biden’s plan to “completely transform the economy to make it all green,” and to ask about COVID-19.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy has a binder full of questions he didn’t get to ask President Biden today
https://t.co/YG7DAigsrm— Daily Caller (@Daily Caller)1616698938.0
Doocy’s name soon began trending on Twitter, with several conservatives criticizing Biden for refusing to take a question from Fox News.
Republican communications firebrand Matt Whitlock said of Biden’s move, “PRETTY GLARING to walk up to the podium with an approved list of media to call on — and leave off Fox News and Peter Doocy.”
PRETTY GLARING to walk up to the podium with an approved list of media to call on —
and leave off Fox News and Peter Doocy.
— Matt Whitlock (@Matt Whitlock)1616697000.0
However, The Hill noted, “Fox wasn’t the only major news outlet to not get a question: The New York Times also was among those who did not get called on.”
Doocy has made a name for himself as a thorn in the side of White House press secretary Jen Psaki, and the two regularly make headlines with their exchanges.
Earlier this year, Biden called on Doocy near the end of a presser and said of the Fox News correspondent, “I know he always asks me tough questions, and he always has an edge to them, but I like him anyway.”
Doocy told People magazine that that comment from Biden gave him “a lot of hope.”
“It is kind of a relief because it’s not like he is saying, ‘I am now president, I don’t have time to answer your questions anymore,’ Doocy told the outlet. “It was like, ‘Okay. I know this might not be something I like, but what is it today?’ That gives me a lot of hope.”
Fox News’ Dana Perino said after the Wednesday conference that it was a mistake for Biden to snub Doocy, arguing that it would then make the story about the reporter.
“If I had been there, I definitely would have told the president to call on Peter Doocy,” Perino said.
“Peter Doocy is not Jim Acosta,” she continued, referring to the CNN White House correspondent who sparred frequently with the Trump administration.
Perino said of Doocy, “He’s got good questions, and the president showed he’s willing to answer questions from all those other people.” She went to say she believes Biden would have been able to answer the questions Doocy said he wanted to ask, before concluding: “Why make Doocy the story?”
“Peter Doocy is not Jim Acosta” https://t.co/vul1apZxze
— Acyn (@Acyn)1616701933.0