WH TRYST TWIST
Biden flack’s threat to ‘destroy’ reporter
White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo threatened to “destroy” a reporter for exposing his secret relationship with another journalist — and was hit with only a week’s suspension despite President Biden’s alleged zero-tolerance policy over harassment.
Ducklo, 32, allegedly went berserk on Politico reporter Tara Palmeri, who had been assigned a story about him dating Axios reporter Alexi McCammond, Vanity Fair reported Friday.
When asked for comment by Palmeri’s male colleague, Ducklo instead called the Politico “Playbook” reporter instead.
“I will destroy you,” he allegedly seethed on the call.
Ducklo then began ranting that Palmeri was “jealous” that a different man had “wanted to f--k”
McCammond, 27, instead of Palmeri. He also claimed she was “jealous” of his relationship with the Axios reporter.
Palmeri, a former New York Post scribe, had no prior association or communication with the Axios reporter, Vanity Fair said.
Politico editors went to Ducklo’s superiors, including White House communications director Kate Bedingfield and press secretary Jen Psaki, over his vulgar outburst.
But at one point, they allegedly tried to turn the tables on Palmeri, accusing her of breaking an offthe-record agreement by telling her bosses about what transpired during the call with Ducklo.
News of Ducklo and McCammond’s relationship was first reported in a glowing piece by People on Monday night — hours after Politico informed the White House communications team that their report would be out Tuesday.
Psaki announced Ducklo’s oneweek unpaid suspension on Friday after Vanity Fair published its own story about his sexist tirade.
“TJ Ducklo has apologized to the reporter, with whom he had a heated conversation about his personal life,” Psaki tweeted. “He is the first to acknowledge this is not the standard of behavior set out by the president.”
When Ducklo returns, he will no longer work with Politico reporters, she said, adding that his punishment was approved by the White House chief of staff.
Biden previously promised a nononsense policy when it came to harassment at the White House.
“If you are 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,” Biden said as he swore in appointees on Inauguration Day. “On the spot.
No ifs, ands or buts.” The White House press corps grilled Psaki Friday on why Ducklo — who is battling stage 4 lung cancer — wasn’t immediately fired, given the president’s alleged stance.
“It doesn’t meet our standard. It doesn’t meet the president’s standard,” Psaki waffled at a press briefing, adding that she did not discuss the matter with Biden. “It was important that we took a step to make that clear, and that included not just an apology directly from him and apologies directly from us at the highest levels there, but also a step to suspend him for one week without pay.”
She called the suspension of her underling “a serious punishment” but didn’t answer a question about how the administration would handle sexist behavior.
“It’s completely unacceptable. He knows that. We’ve had conversations about that,” Psaki said.
Former President Donald Trump’s defense team on Friday argued that House Democrats built a flimsy and hypocritical impeachment case against their client for allegedly inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The defense lawyers argued that the case was based on unconfirmed press reports and remarks by Trump that were nearly identical to those made by Democrats who either urged supporters to “fight” for political causes or to doubt election results.
“The House managers did zero investigation, and the American people deserve a lot better than coming in here with no evidence — hearsay on top of hearsay on top of reports that are of hearsay,” said Trump lawyer Michael van der Veen.
A final vote in the trial is expected on Saturday.
Democrats contend that Trump fed his supporters lies about voter fraud and intentionally assembled a violent mob to intimidate Congress and Vice President Mike Pence into rejecting President Biden’s victory.
But Trump’s defense team played video of the ex-president’s remarks in speeches last year promoting support for police and “law and order” — arguing that no true Trump supporter would assault and murder police officers at the Capitol.
The defense team also disputed Democratic claims that Trump didn’t act immediately to quell the riot because he had been delighted by the uprising.
“The House managers, facing a significant lack of evidence, turned often to press reports and rumors during these proceedings,” Trump attorney David
Schoen said.
“As any trial lawyer will tell you, ‘reportedly’ is a euphemism for, ‘I have no real evidence’ . . . It is exactly as reliable as ‘I Googled this for you.’ ”
Trump lawyers also presented montages of Democrats — including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) outside the Supreme Court last year — as they addressed crowds with rhetoric that the defense said was similar to that used by Trump in his pre-riot speech.
It is considered unlikely that the House managers will secure the 17 Republican votes needed for conviction.
On Tuesday, 44 of the Senate’s 50 Republicans voted that the trial was unconstitutional because Trump no longer holds office — and many say they cannot see past that point to even contemplate conviction.
One of the six Republicans who voted to allow the trial — Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — was photographed on Friday holding a printout of what appeared to be a statement explaining a “not guilty” vote.
The paper read in part, “the
House Managers did not connect the dots to show President Trump knew that the attack on the Capitol was going to be violent and result in the loss of life.”
Four rioters and Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died in the riot. Two other police officers who had been at the scene and at least one rioter subsequently died by suicide.
Trump’s lawyers presented a ri
val theory of what sparked the mayhem. They noted that initial clashes between cops and rioters began at 12:53 p.m. on Jan. 6 — before Trump had completed his speech at 1:10 p.m. imploring fans to march on Capitol Hill.
“It is apparent that extremists of various different stripes and political persuasions preplanned and premeditated an attack on the Capitol,” van der Veen said.
On Thursday, impeachment managers argued that the Capitol riot was the natural conclusion of a monthslong strategy by Trump to cling to power.
But Trump’s defense argued that objecting to electors is common and lawful.
Van der Veen played clips of Democrats — including lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) — objecting in 2016 to the certification of Trump electors.
“The entire Democratic Party and national news media spent the last four years repeating without any evidence that the 2016 election had been hacked — and falsely and absurdly claimed the president of the United States was a Russian spy,” van der Veen said.
Van der Veen said violent protests last year by Black Lives Matter
activists were supported by many Democratic officials.
Trump lawyer Bruce Castor argued that the former president isn’t guilty of “incitement of insurrection” because the riot didn’t match the common understanding of the term. TV stations weren’t seized, and there was no grand plan to hijack control of the government, he said.
“This shameful effort [is] a deliberate attempt by the Democrat Party to smear, censor and cancel not just President Trump, but the 75 million Americans who voted for him,” Castor said.
The trial will come to a finish on Saturday. The proceedings are slated to start at 10 a.m., with closing statements from each side followed by a vote on Trump’s acquittal or conviction.