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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Kelly Rissman

White House thanks Fox News reporter after viral clip where he appeared to regret defending Biden

Screen grab

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre thanked a Fox News correspondent after he seemed to sympathise with Joe Biden’s rigourous schedule – ever-so briefly.

Although the right-wing media often describes Mr Biden as “Sleepy Joe,” things changed for a moment when Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy, reporting from Hanoi, Vietnam, acknowledged that the president was probably tired because he had been working nonstop.

When asked by Fox News hosts what to expect from Mr Biden’s appearance, Doocy replied, “We expect a short statement” from the president about the G20 summit followed by “as many questions as he wants to take.”

“He has been basically working all through the night, the equivalent of an all-nighter, Eastern time,” Doocy reported from Vietnam on Sunday, while awaiting a press conference from Biden, who landed in Hanoi after attending the G20 summit in New Delhi. “So, he’s probably pretty tired. Pretty jet-lagged.”

“But,” he stumbled, seeming to realise that he had just undermined the “Sleepy Joe” narrative, “he should take at least a handful” of questions.

Journalist Aaron Rupar, who shared the clip on the platform, wrote: “You can see the exact moment when Peter Doocy realizes he just demolished one of his own network’s talking points”

Ms Jean-Pierre reposted Rupar’s tweet and wrote: “Thank you, Peter.”

Last month, Mr Biden and Doocy went head-to-head when the Fox News correspondent started to ask the president about his son, Hunter Biden.

Doocy said, “There’s this testimony now where one of your son’s former business associates is claiming that you were on speakerphone a lot with them talking business. Is that what…”

Mr Biden snapped back, saying, “I never talked business with anybody, and I knew you’d have a lousy question.”

“Well, what, why is that a lousy question?” responded Doocy.

The president said “because it’s not true.”

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