Media

CNN’s Acosta on Doocy and Biden: ‘We never got an apology’ from Trump

by Dominick Mastrangelo 01/25/22 09:37 AM ET

CNN anchor Jim Acosta said he and others at his network “never got an apology” from former President Trump, who relentlessly attacked its journalists during his time in the White House, after President Biden called Fox News’s Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a bitch” on a hot mic.

“Today we had the president of the United States refer to a reporter as an SOB,” Acosta said on the network on Monday night. “Ya know, Don [Lemon], you and I got called a lot worse back in the day. We never got an apology. I don’t remember that from the commander in chief. So maybe things are a little bit better to some extent.”

Acosta, who covered Trump’s White House for CNN and has since taken a job anchoring a weekend show on the network, was referring to an outburst from Biden directed at Doocy during an event earlier in the day.

“Will you take a question on inflation?” Doocy asked the president. “Do you think inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms?”

“No, it’s a great asset,” Biden responded, almost under his breath, into a microphone he may not have realized was picking him up. “More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.”

Doocy and Biden have had a contentious relationship going back to his days covering Biden’s run for president in 2020. Video of Monday’s incident was widely circulated on social media and on cable news Monday evening, with many conservatives accusing the press of holding Biden to a different standard when dealing with the press than Trump, who regularly attacked journalists covering his administration and went so far as to call them “the enemy of the people.”

The president called Doocy later on Monday, the Fox News journalist said.

“He called my cellphone, and he said, ‘It’s nothing personal, pal,'” Doocy said of his conversation with Biden. “And we went back and forth, and we were talking about just kind of moving forward.”

Pressed by Fox News host Sean Hannity if the president actually apologized to him, Doocy responded, “He cleared the air, and I appreciated it. We had a nice call.”