Disjointed Fox News reporter questions Biden, who doesn’t care

Whenever President Biden leaves a stage or a pulpit after a media appearance, the last voice that viewers hear usually belongs to Fox News correspondent in the White House, Peter Doocy.

In a post-Trump era, when reporters are no longer dealing with a tsunami of disinformation or general hostility towards their trade, Doocy has emerged as a combative old-school correspondent, filling White House press secretary Jen Psaki – and occasionally Biden – with questions about how the president’s policies differ from promises made during the campaign.

President Biden realized, and not in the hostile way that journalists experienced in covering Donald Trump, that he was more approachable but often contentious when dealing with the White House press.

“I know he always asks me tough questions and always has an advantage over them, but I like him anyway,” said Biden before calling Doocy at a recent briefing.

The president also scoffed at Doocy, once suggesting that he could be press secretary for the White House. When Doocy asked Biden what he had talked about in his first phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the president replied, “You. He sends his best. “

But Doocy has tough skin, perhaps the result of growing up in a Fox News family. He is the son of Steve Doocy, former co-host of the sometimes irreverent morning show “Fox & Friends”, which caters to the network’s conservative followers and is often the target of his detractors. Trump regularly called the show for years, laying the groundwork for his political career.

Unlike his father, the youngest Doocy, 33, has followed a direct path to the news since he joined the network in 2009, after graduating from Villanova University. He covered Washington and then tracked Democratic candidates during the 2020 presidential campaign.

Doocy stays away from the politically charged skirmishes that keep Fox News on the radar of media critics.

As the Times recently reported, the network has been under attack in recent months when some of its hosts spread Trump’s misinformation about the 2020 election being manipulated to favor Biden, leading to a defamation suit. Fox News also faced a negative reaction from Trump supporters for calling Biden in Arizona on election night, which has been linked to a jolt in the network’s political unity.

For all these reasons, Doocy managed to build a reputation as an aggressive questioner for Biden during his 2020 run for the White House, often shouting how traditional journalists’ scrums were banned to ensure social distance. He has maintained that since he was appointed a White House correspondent on January 13.

“He’s bringing that tenacity to the White House and making news almost every day with his questioning,” said Bret Baier, anchor for “Special Report,” the nightly news where Doocy appears frequently.

Doocy recently spoke with The Times in Washington about his new role.

How did you develop the ability to ask your questions on the spot?

The way it happened in the gaggles was just recognizing that our time with Biden would be very short for the most part. He may be in transit, he may be moving from an exit to a building for a bus. And we can have 10 seconds. Therefore, the question has to be very short; it has to be something that draws attention. I was going to go over it a lot on the campaign trail with my producer, Pat Ward, and we would find out what was the most interesting topic for us, and then we would just narrow down an issue and publicize it.

How is your batting average in terms of getting Biden to respond to you in these situations?

It’s been really good. If we are in a position to hear him. I would say that we are hitting more than 0.500.

Were you surprised when Biden said publicly that he liked you?

This did not surprise me. But the way he framed it was what a reporter would like to hear, right? He knows it will be a difficult question with an advantage, but “I like him anyway.” And that means he is ready for the tough questions and looks like he will continue to answer them. So, more than a surprise, it kind of gave me hope that it will continue for the next two years. There are so few opportunities to be in the room with him, but it seems that when we are, he will be listening to us.

You’ve been watching Biden every day for almost a year. Is there anything different about him for you now that he is president?

He looks very comfortable there. Now, at the White House, we can be much closer to him than at many campaign events in Delaware. In Wilmington, they occupied a large theater in the center of the city, the Queen Theater. And they got a rent worth a few months in this place, and they connected it so that it would be on stage and the reporters would be socially distant where the seats would normally be in this theater. It was always like you were seeing something in a theater and someone was on stage. It was more impersonal just because of the distance and the way things were organized.

Now, when you see him, that’s what he always wanted to do, and that includes several decades in Washington. And it looks like he’s very comfortable on paper, in a way that we may not have seen so much during the transition.

Fox News commentators criticized President Biden last year during the campaign, and it continues now. Does that make your job more difficult when dealing with the White House?

It didn’t really have much of an impact. As you saw, the president will still answer the questions. The press secretary will still call Fox whenever we are in the briefing room. The only time we are not called is on days when we simply do not have a physical seat in the instruction room because they have this social detachment. So, two days out of the week, we’re not there. But, on those days, the team responded perfectly by email or if we can receive them in person.

Do you worry about the fact that sometimes there are points of view or theories that contradict the factual report presented on the network? Does that make your job as a journalist more challenging?

I would say that, covering the Biden White House, I have dealt with many Democrats all day and have had no problems. I think everyone knows that when they see an email or phone call from me and I have a story I’m working on for Fox, they know it will be fair and it will be solid.

Personally, you see something on the network that makes you shudder sometimes and say, “I wish they didn’t do that.”

I’m just trying to do my own thing and focus on my 90 seconds. I don’t see everything. As I learn in this role, I’m trying to launch a good product for 90 seconds every hour or two, depending on what’s going on.

The cable news audience has become more politically polarized, and opinion presenters receive much more attention. Do you worry about the kind of direct reporting you do is getting overshadowed?

From my point of view, direct news is getting more attention than ever. The new information we have received from the new administration is receiving more attention than anything else I have been assigned to. There is really no difference in opinion or direct news programs in terms of what the presenters or anchors ask and what my approach is. I was on “Fox & Friends” this morning, and I will be on “Special Report With Bret Baier” later, and no one asks me any differently. I write the same type of script and use the same type of elements.

You were very young when you got an interview in 2014 with Navy SEAL that killed Osama bin Laden. How did you get this?

I connected with Rob O’Neill through a friend. He and his father would be in the city shortly after the attack on Bin Laden. And it wasn’t like ‘go and find that reporter to talk to’; it was just going to find my friend Peter. And we went out, had a few drinks and some nachos at a bar in Arlington, Va. And then he and I became friends, we kept in touch, and when he was ready to tell his story, I went to the bosses in New York and they told me they were very supportive and gave me the chance to do that.

How long between the moment you met him and the actual interview?

More than two years have passed. It may have been almost three years.

And did everyone in the Washington office just stop talking to you after the interview aired?

Everyone came up to me and asked, “How did you do that?” Buy a bill from a bar in Arlington on a weekend and you never know.

Was anyone on Fox News a big influence for you? Did someone put you under your protection?

All the time I was in Washington, everyone was very supportive. John Roberts, when he left the White House a few weeks ago so I could go over there and take his place. Mike Emanuel has been great and we spent a lot of time together on Capitol Hill. The late Wendell Goler was also very supportive. And then a lot of people who had a lot more experience than me, and who were probably too busy to tell me how things worked, have always said, and it’s been great.

Her father, Steve Doocy, is a veteran announcer. You grew up watching him. What did you learn from him?

I think the most important thing is that I learned what is interesting for people and what is not. He really impressed me that it is important to take the news seriously, just don’t take yourself seriously. And I think we do a good job at that. My first day in New York – I think it was in 2009 – and I was wearing a dress shirt, I hadn’t worn my work jacket yet. And we were walking around the office in the basement, which has already been moved, and he looked at me and said, “Just roll up your sleeves.” And I said, “Why?” He said, “If your sleeves are rolled up, people will think you are busy.” And that was the best trick of all, because I’m sure I convinced many managers that I was busy on days when I might not be.

“Saturday Night Live” used to make a very perverse “Fox & Friends” satire. Have you watched with your father?

We never watched it together, mainly because he goes to bed early. But we texted and he thought it was hilarious.

He once performed a show that was produced at Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center, where “Saturday Night Live” is staged.

“Home party with Steve Doocy”. Years ago, I was asking him, “What do you think about ‘SNL’ releasing a character that looks like you?” And he said, “The best part is that I know the layout of the set, and that means that somewhere on that floor, there is a box with a wig labeled ‘Steve Doocy’s Hair’.”