The White House announced on Saturday that it had accepted the resignation of a senior official who allegedly threatened to ‘destroy’ a journalist who asked him about his personal life.
Deputy White House spokesman TJ Ducklo was originally suspended for a week without pay, but now President Joe Biden’s administration has accepted his resignation, presidential press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
According to Vanity Fair magazine, Ducklo called Politico reporter Tara Palmeri after she started asking questions about her months-long personal relationship with Axios reporter Alexi McCammond, a rival of Politico.
“I will destroy you,” Ducklo reportedly told Palmeri in a phone call shortly after Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
According to Vanity Fair, Ducklo “made derogatory and misogynistic remarks” to Palmeri, calling her “jealous.”
Psaki said the White House had accepted Ducklo’s resignation after speaking to him on Saturday night and that he is acting with the support of the chief of staff.
“We are committed to striving every day to live up to the president’s standard of treating others with dignity and respect and courtesy … through our words and our actions,” Psaki said in his statement.
When the case went public on Friday, Psaki said Ducklo apologized to the reporter, “with whom he had a heated conversation about his personal life.”
Ducklo, a former national press secretary from Biden’s 2020 election campaign, released a statement on Twitter acknowledging his responsibility.
“There are no words to express my regret, shame and disgust for my behavior. I used language that no woman should hear from anyone, especially in a situation where she was just trying to do her job,” she said. . “It was disgusting, disrespectful and unacceptable language.”
Ducklo added that he was “devastated that he had embarrassed and disappointed (his) White House colleagues and President Biden.”
Politico Playbook, the Washington gossip and politics newsletter Palmeri is working on, wrote this week that McCammond made public in November that she was dating Ducklo.
A day after he was sworn in as president, Biden warned White House staff against mistreating others.
“I’m not kidding when I say this: if you ever work with me and I hear that you are disrespectful to another colleague, I will fire you on the spot.”