Joe Biden Rehires Fired White House Aide Who Made ‘Abhorrent’ Attack on Female Reporter
President Joe Biden recently rehired a White House aide who was fired in 2021 for an “abhorrent” attack against a female reporter, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Former White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo is reportedly set to rejoin the Biden Administration two years after the 34-year-old political adviser resigned after launching “threatening and abusive” remarks against then-Politico reporter Tara Palmeri in February 2021.
The 2021 incident reportedly took place after Palmeri confronted Ducklo regarding an “ethically-questionable” relationship the Biden advisor formed with Axios reporter Alexi McCammond one year earlier.
But despite the backlash Ducklo received for his abhorrent behavior, Palmeri – who now writes for Puck – penned a piece on Thursday in which she not only forgave the 34-year-old former White House deputy press secretary but also expressed how she “never wanted Ducklo to be fired from the White House.”
"The truth about Ducklo, with whom I had never interacted before the incident on the night of Biden’s inauguration, is that he was a very aggressive defender of the president, which naturally rubbed some reporters the wrong way," Palmeri wrote in Thursday’s piece for Puck.
"Some thought he was demeaning, but nobody who approached me afterward said that he had ever crossed the line as he did with me,” she continued. “For what it’s worth, I never wanted Ducklo to be fired from the White House."
Still, Biden’s decision to rehire Ducklo in a senior communications role on the president’s newly launched 2024 reelection campaign has caused controversy for the 80-year-old commander-in-chief.
“It’s hard to believe that in the post-#MeToo, anti-bullying world we live in, that the president’s team would be this tone-deaf,” Michael LaRosa, who served as press secretary for former first lady Jill Biden, told Politico this week.
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“If true, it represents a stunning lack of judgment by those whom he entrusted to responsibly staff his reelection campaign,” LaRosa continued. “It’s not like there is a lack of Democratic talent in D.C. or across the country to choose from.”
“Hiring former personnel who embarrassed and humiliated him in his first three weeks in office and created an unnecessary distraction in the briefing room and for the first family feels counterintuitive to me.”
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Other individuals close to the Biden Administration, such as former deputy communications director for strategic planning Meghan Hays, spoke out in support of Ducklo and praised Biden for rehiring the embattled White House aide.
“No one deserves to be defined by their worst day,” Hays said following the news Ducklo was returning to the White House to help lead Biden’s reelection campaign.