Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy is one of the few reporters in Washington, D.C. willing to press the Biden administration on tough issues.
Doocy and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre frequently clash during the weekly briefings.
But Peter Doocy asked one question about Joe Biden that sent National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan off the rails.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan attended Monday’s White House daily press briefing with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Sullivan started by giving an update on the situation in Israel, telling reporters that “earlier today, President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” before adding that “the two leaders discussed the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, and they spoke about the state of Israel’s military operations.”
Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy wanted to know why Biden went 32 days without talking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the phone.
“First of all, our teams are in contact every single day at every level,” Sullivan said. “President Biden gets a daily – twice daily, sometimes nine times daily – update on what is going on, and he reserves his calls for the Prime Minister for when he believes there’s a clear, key strategic moment that needs to come forward.”
Sullivan also told Doocy that “the Prime Minister, of course, knows how to reach President Biden.”
“If the Prime Minister felt he needed the president for some reason, he would have picked up the phone and called,” Sullivan claimed. “And of course, in the last 32 days, President Biden has never declined a phone call from Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
Sullivan said Biden was following “the normal give and take of two leaders, both operating their governments, both operating their foreign policies, both working with their teams, and then at a key inflection point in the dialogue between the two sides coming together and talking.”
“I wouldn’t make more of it than that,” he added.
But Sullivan flew off the rails when Doocy offered up his second question.
NBC News recently published a story with a headline that read, “Behind the scenes, Biden has grown angry and anxious about re-election efforts.”
The report referenced an alleged incident that occurred at the White House in January where Biden “began to shout and swear” after staff informed him of slumping poll numbers in a pair of battleground states.
NBC News cited an unnamed lawmaker as the source of the report.
Doocy decided to ask Sullivan to clarify whether the report was true or just another made-up media narrative.
“There’s a report that when President Biden was told his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas was starting to affect his poll numbers, the quote is he began to shout and swear,” Doocy began his question. “So when he does that, is he shouting and swearing about Netanyahu or about Hamas or about his poll numbers?”
Sullivan’s response put Doocy’s jaws on the floor.
“This is the ‘when did you stop beating your spouse’ question because I don’t think he ever did that,” Sullivan shot back.
A shocked Doocy interjected with “excuse me,” but was cut off by Sullivan who proceeded to rant over the question.
“Well, you use that as the premise of your question, which is when he does that,” Sullivan said. “He – I’ve never seen him do that, shout or swear in response to that,” he continued. “So from my perspective, that particular report is not correct.”
Doocy’s question clearly frustrated Sullivan.
But concerns over Biden’s mental fitness for office will only increase over the next eight months.
