White House press secretary Jen Psaki publicly rebuked her deputy on Friday for inappropriate comments made to a reporter on the day of the inauguration.
Vanity Fair reported on Friday that White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo threatened to “destroy” Politician reporter Tara Palmeri, who asked about his relationship with Axios reporter Alexi McCammond. McCammond was covering Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, and romantic relationships between reporters and their sources may raise ethical questions.
In the unofficial phone call, Ducklo reportedly made misogynistic comments to Palmeri, accusing her of being “jealous” that another man “wanted to fuck” McCammond and not Palmeri, according to Vanity Fair. The magazine also reported that Ducklo said to Palmeri, “I will destroy you” if she continues with the story. He also took note of the fact that a male Politician reporter was assigned to ask Ducklo about the relationship, while Palmeri approached McCammond. Instead of contacting the reporter, Ducklo contacted Palmeri, according to Vanity Fair.
Psaki admitted on Friday that the conversation did not meet “the standard of behavior set by the president.” This pattern was articulated by President Biden on his first day in office, apparently right around the time Ducklo threatened Palmeri.
“I’m not kidding when I say this. If you are working with me, and I hear that you treat another colleague with disrespect, speak to someone, I promise that I will dismiss you immediately,” Mr. Biden said. “Right away. No ifs, ands or buts. Everyone, everyone has the right to be treated with decency and dignity.”
It is not clear why it took more than three weeks for the White House to discipline Ducklo.
CBS News was unable to independently verify the call, but the conversation three weeks ago led to a series of measures by the White House communications office, two people familiar with the situation told CBS News.
The next day, January 21, while Biden issued a series of executive orders, White House chief adviser Anita Dunn, Communications Director Kate Bedingfield and Psaki spent part of the day on the phone with Palmeri’s chiefs at the Politico and acknowledged that it was what Ducklo said was not acceptable. They promised that he would apologize, said the two people familiar with the discussion.
Subsequently, “Ducklo sent Palmeri an email saying he regretted losing his temper, but he didn’t go into any detail or apologize for threatening and sexually harassing the reporter,” Vanity Fair reported.
White House officials complained to the Politico leadership that Palmeri did not honor his unofficial deal with Ducklo because she discussed the conversation with her editors, according to a source familiar with the situation. But being “unofficial” is an agreement between the reporter and the source that information about the conversation should not be published. Politico maintained that agreement.
The day after the tense phone call, Palmeri and his colleagues were due to present a live broadcast with an interview with senior White House adviser, Cedric Richmond. This event was announced on January 19.
According to emails obtained by CBS News that were sent on the morning of the event, Politico asked if Palmeri could interview Richmond alongside one of his colleagues, Ryan Lizza.
“Let’s just do Ryan,” replied White House deputy director of communications Kate Berner, adding that the White House had previously agreed to only one moderator – Lizza.
The video of the event shows that Politico moved forward with the live broadcast without Palmeri as an interviewer or on the panel, although Palmeri was listed as one of the speakers in the announcement of the event.
Palmeri declined to comment, referring the request to Politico, who provided a statement from its main editors, saying in part: “No journalist from POLITICO – or any other publication or network – should be subjected to such unfounded personal attacks while making his job . “
Another person familiar with the circumstances said Palmeri was removed from the virtual event because she was stuck in traffic unexpectedly, and her absence was unrelated to the consequences of the exchange with Ducklo the day before.
The first article published about Ducklo’s relationship was not published by Politico, but by People Magazine earlier this week, on Monday night. Many White House officials shared the article on social media.
Less than 12 hours later, the Politico Playbook reported that People Magazine’s story was published after Politico notified the White House of its intention to publish a story about Ducklo’s relationship.
An Axios spokesman told CBS News that McCammond had revealed his relationship with Ducklo to his editors in November and asked to remove coverage from Biden’s campaign. It was then reassigned to cover then-elected vice president Kamala Harris, the progressive and progressive movement in Congress.
“Alexi is a valuable member of the Axios team,” said the Axios spokesman, “and we support her and her coverage.”
Ducklo will serve a week’s unpaid suspension and will no longer work with Politico reporters, according to Psaki.
The press secretary described the threatening phone call as a “heated conversation about [Ducklo’s] personal life, “and said Ducklo has since apologized to Palmeri. Weijia Jiang of CBS News has lobbied Psaki at the White House to explain why this disciplinary measure was applied weeks after the incident occurred – and after the story was published about the threats. Psaki simply replied, “You are right.”
“There were conversations that took place with the reporter, as well as with the editors of Politico immediately afterwards,” said Psaki. “That’s how we got engaged in private. And, you know, that was what we thought was appropriate at the time.”
Psaki said on Friday that Biden was not involved in the discussion and that the week-long suspension was approved by White House chief of staff Ron Klain.