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The White House said it has accepted the resignation of a staff member who allegedly threatened to “destroy” a journalist who asked about his personal life.
White House deputy spokesperson TJ Ducklo was originally suspended for a week without pay, but now President Joe Biden’s administration has accepted his resignation, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
According to Vanity Fair magazine, Ducklo called Politico reporter Tara Palmeri after she began asking questions about her months-long personal relationship with a reporter for Politico’s rival Axios, Alexi McCammond.
“I will destroy you,” Ducklo allegedly told Palmeri in a phone call shortly after Biden’s January 20 presidential inauguration.
According to Vanity Fair, Mr. Ducklo “made disparaging and misogynistic remarks” to Ms. Palmeri and called her “jealous.”
Psaki said the White House accepted Ducklo’s resignation after speaking with him last night and is acting with the support of the White House chief of staff.
“We are committed to striving every day to meet the standard set by the President of treating others with dignity and respect, with courtesy, and with value to others through our words and actions,” said the statement from Mrs. Psaki.
When the story broke on Friday, Psaki said Ducklo apologized to the reporter “with whom he had a heated conversation about his personal life.”
Ducklo, who was the national press secretary for Biden’s 2020 election campaign, released a statement on Twitter in which he referred to his “intolerable actions.”
“There are no words that can express my regret, my shame and my disgust for my behavior. I used language that no woman should have to hear from anyone, especially in a situation where she was just trying to do her job,” she said.
“It was loathsome, disrespectful and unacceptable language.”
Ducklo added that he was “devastated to have embarrassed and disappointed my White House colleagues and President Biden.”
Politico Playbook, the Washington political advice and gossip newsletter for which Ms. Palmeri reports, wrote this week that Ms. McCammond made it public in November that she was dating Ducklo.
A day after being sworn in as president, Biden warned his White House staff against mistreating others.
“I’m not kidding when I say this: if you ever work with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk badly to someone, I’ll fire you on the spot.
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