Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy said that President Joe Biden reneged on a promise to him, and now that he is leaving the White House, it appears he will never have the chance to keep it.
Doocy spoke on Friday, just days before the president was set to leave the White House, about the famous incident where Biden called him a “stupid son of a bi*ch” during a January 2022 press conference after the correspondent asked if inflation could be a political liability for Democrats.
“I feel like I can say this now because it never happened,” Doocy told his “Fox & Friends” colleagues. “He called me, and initially he told me ‘it’s nothing personal, pal’ that he said a bad word. He also said that this was at the tail-end of COVID, and he said he would have me in for lunch when it was safe. Well, I think his lunch card is probably filled, it never happened. So, it was never safe to have lunch with me.”
Co-host Steve Doocy, Peter’s dad, added that his son had asked former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki about the lunch when Peter took a photo with her on her last day at that job.
“The lunch never happened. I’ve told many people about the lunch, but the lunch never happened. I did not pack a lunch today, Fridays I’m usually out of leftovers, so we’re out here,” Peter Doocy noted.
Right after the incident with Biden, Peter Doocy spoke to Fox News host Sean Hannity and said that the president called him and said that the comment was “nothing personal.”
“He did clear the air and I appreciate it. We had a nice call … I told him that I appreciated him reaching out. Hey, Sean, the world is on the brink of, like, World War III. With all the stuff going on, I appreciate that the president took a couple minutes out this evening while he was still at the desk to give me a call and clear the air, but I don’t need anybody to apologize to me,” he said.
In December, the correspondent said that he would “miss” President Biden.
During an interview with New York Magazine on Wednesday, Peter Doocy spoke about his presence at the Democratic National Convention with Charlotte Klein, a media columnist and features writer.
“I do think people needed an outlet to just be excited about something,” he told Klein of the convention after Doocy updated his network’s viewers on the convention on Wednesday’s edition of Special Report with host Bret Baier.
Klein observed that the Fox News reporter and Biden had had a series of contentious exchanges over four years, which had garnered attention. She then inquired about Biden’s perspective on the Democratic convention in Chicago.
After reflecting on his brief stay in the Windy City, Klein asked Doocy if he thought Democrats had made the right choice in choosing Vice President Kamala Harris to challenge former President Donald Trump in November.
“Based on this week here, yes, but when I was here for the Biden walkthrough, and just the amount that I had gotten to know him over the last five years—when I saw him looking out at all of this, it seemed like he was thinking, ‘am I doing the right thing?’” Doocy replied.
Doocy confirmed that he would regret sparring with Biden during interviews and briefings while serving as the face of Fox News at the White House for many Americans.
“Yes. I really will,” Doocy said. “I don’t think it took long for them to know exactly what to expect from me. They knew I was always going to ask him something hard and he continued to engage for years after that and his team did too… and so yes, I will miss him.”