As he left the room, the reporter asked if “inflation is a political risk” for the president. Biden looked away, muttered a sarcastic comment while the microphone was still on, and then called the reporter a “stupid bastard.”
Video footage of the incident appeared on Twitter and several US news websites. The journalist cannot be seen and the video ends after Biden’s comment.
An hour after the incident, Peter Dossey, the reporter in question, appeared on Fox News’ Shawn Hannity. In it, Dossey said Biden called him to offer him an apology. “It wasn’t personal, my friend,” he said. And we talked for a while and I said I’d always ask questions that other people wouldn’t, and he said I should keep doing that. It was an interesting conversation.”
This is not the first time Biden has been arrested using profanity. In 2010, for example, as Vice President, he congratulated then-President Barack Obama on getting a major health care reform. Biden said it was a “big deal,” and could be heard through a working microphone.
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