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Joe Biden has long sought to depict himself as a champion for women — from sponsoring the Violence Against Women Act as a senator to fronting the It’s On Us anti-campus sexual assault campaign as vice president. But frankly, he’s not having a very feminist week.
Cockburn was shocked to read a report in Politico that TJ Ducklo is “on the cusp of officially reentering Biden world in a senior communications role on his reelection campaign.” Ducklo, you may recall, resigned as White House deputy press secretary in 2021 after yelling at Tara Palmeri, a female reporter then at Politico, threatening to “destroy” her. Palmeri had contacted the White House to ask about Ducklo’s relationship with Axios political reporter Alexi McCammond, who covered the Biden campaign.
The Politico piece quotes influential women in Biden’s sphere, such as Anita Dunn and Kate Bedingfield, who argue that Ducklo “has made amends for his actions and deserves another stint in Biden world.” Politico does not quote… Palmeri, who tweeted, “very strange to read a story about yourself from your former publication in which you are not named our asked for comment.” Naturally, Cockburn reached out to Palmeri to offer her a platform — and will add her thoughts should she choose to respond.
On the first day of his administration, Biden told his political appointees, “If you ever work with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I will fire you on the spot. No ifs, ands or buts.” This comment was raised frequently during the Ducklo imbroglio. Cockburn wonders whether the president should wait to hear from Palmeri on whether Ducklo deserves a second chance — rather than from dozens of Ducklo’s friends…
Alexi McCammond, whose relationship with Ducklo was the source of the fracas, has in the years since left Axios to become editor at Teen Vogue, resigned before starting there after offense archaeologists turfed up her high-school tweets and rejoined Axios as a political reporter. When her relationship with Ducklo became public knowledge — in a soft People magazine profile, rather than Palmeri’s piece — it was announced that she would forgo reporting on Biden, in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
It’s not clear whether McCammond is still dating Ducklo — there’s no sign of him on her Instagram, at least, just pictures of her looking rather dashing at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — and so who’s to say whether their relationship (or former relationship) would have a bearing on her ability to report fairly on the Biden White House. Cockburn emailed Axios to ask whether McCammond was still recusing herself from Biden coverage — and had yet to receive a response at the time of publication.
In a more remote part of “Bidenworld” — Arkansas — Cockburn has been monitoring court proceedings with interest, where Lunden Roberts is taking her former fling Hunter Biden to task for his attempt to pay reduced child support for the lovechild he fathered with her.
Roberts’s legal team are seeking continued payments of $20,000 a month, so that Hunter’s bastard daughter, four-year-old Navy Joan Roberts, could “enjoy the same lifestyle and quality of life as her half-siblings and cousins who are members of the Biden family.”
Lunden was a stripper at DC’s Mpire club in Dupont Circle when she was impregnated by the first son — hey, who among us… — and is also suing for the right for their daughter Navy to have the last name “Biden.”
Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked in Tuesday’s briefing why President Biden refused to acknowledge Navy, his seventh grandchild. “I’m not gonna speak to that,” Jean-Pierre responded.
Goodness: doesn’t Joe know that “sex work is work” these days? What kind of example is the president setting by allowing his son to run out on his daughter to live in luxury at the White House?
On a seemingly unrelated note, Biden’s social media team thought Tuesday was a good day for Joe to use the word “deadbeat.” And they say us Americans don’t get irony…
