When White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo and Axios reporter Alexi McCammond turned to People magazine for a puff piece revealing that the two were dating, it was only a matter of time before a real journalist dropped the full story. Evidently, that reporter was Politico’s Tara Palmeri, and Ducklo and McCammond didn’t just try to get ahead of the story by turning to a tabloid — instead, they wanted to silence Politico entirely.
According to Caleb Ecarma at Vanity Fair, Ducklo went off on Palmeri in a threatening and sexist tirade, telling the journalist, “I will destroy you.”
“During the off-the-record call, Ducklo made derogatory and misogynistic comments, accusing Palmeri of only reporting on his relationship — which, due to the ethics questions that factor into the relationship between a journalist and White House official, falls under the purview of her reporting beat — because she was ‘jealous’ that an unidentified man in the past had ‘wanted to f—‘ McCammond ‘and not you,'” Ecarma reports. “Ducklo also accused Palmeri of being ‘jealous’ of his relationship with McCammond. (Palmeri had no prior relationship or communication with McCammond before calling her to report on the Playbook item, which was a story that she was assigned and had not independently pursued.)”
It goes without saying that any communications staffer sexually harassing and threatening a journalist for covering a legitimate story ought to constitute a fireable offense. But whether Ducklo actually will face the consequences is another matter.
For starters, Ecarma reports that senior Biden officials, including White House press secretary Jen Psaki, Communications Director Kate Bedingfield, and senior adviser Anita Dunn, all communicated with Politico to rectify the situation. But evidently, Ducklo was simply asked to apologize to Palmeri.
Former President Donald Trump may have called the media the enemy of the people, but if Biden fails to fire Ducklo after such a sexist and threatening attack on a journalist doing her job, he’ll prove no better on the account of restoring civility. Already, his administration is less transparent, and despite the glowing coverage of his press office, Psaki’s briefings are barely less incompetent than her predecessors.
If this is how egregious of a conduct Biden will tolerate to quash a story as inconsequential as a lower-level staffer dating a reporter, how much misconduct will he allow to conceal developments in Iran negotiations? What about dealings with Russia or China?
One thing can be relied upon for sure. The Ducklo dust-up will be out of the news in a day regardless of the outcome, and I wouldn’t hold my breath to see Palmeri celebrated on CNN as a First Amendment hero.
