The United States (US) President Joe Biden is embroiled in a controversy after he was caught using abusive words for a Fox News reporter at a White House event on Monday, 24 January.
When the journalist yelled out a question to the president regarding the impact of inflation on the 2022 midterm Congressional elections, and whether inflation was a liability or not, Biden sarcastically replied by saying, "That's a great asset, more inflation, what a stupid son of a bitch."
The journalist in question was Peter Doocy, a White House correspondent with whom Biden has frequent verbal exchanges that are a bit rash in nature.
Doocy later told a Fox News TV show host that Biden had called him on his phone an hour after the exchange, and had said "it's nothing personal, pal."
Biden is strict about his administration's officials maintaining etiquette in the workplace.
"If you're ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot... no ifs, ands or buts," he had told his employees during their swearing in ceremony last year, Reuters reported.
Consumer prices in the US have spiked recently in what has become the largest annual rise in inflation in nearly 40 years.
(With inputs from Reuters.)
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