White House Press Aide Under Fire Resigns After Threatening an Establishment Media Journalist

A White House press aide who repeatedly threatened a reporter working on a story about his romantic life resigned on Saturday.

Vanity Fair reported Friday that the aide, TJ Ducklo, told a reporter for Politico “I will destroy you” and made other crude remarks when asked to comment on a report that he was dating a Washington journalist. The White House initially suspended him without pay.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Saturday that Ducklo had resigned.

Ducklo said in a statement posted on Twitter that “no words can express my regret, my embarrassment, and my disgust for my behavior.”

Here’s the backstory:

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President Joe Biden’s White House only took a few short weeks for the first suspension of one of its employees.

TJ Duckalo is facing an unpaid suspension for a period of one week (which is far too light of punishment) for threatening a Politico reporter about a situation involving a romantic relationship. Duckalo actually told the reporter “I will destroy you,” which is never something you want to say as a White House employee.

The situation quickly escalated to the point that White House press secretary Jen “circle back” Psaki was forced to address the matter at a daily WH press briefing.

Reuters has the story:

The White House said on Friday it temporarily suspended a press aide after he reportedly threatened a reporter who was working on a story about his romantic relationship with another journalist.

Vanity Fair reported on Friday that White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo had made threats – including “I will destroy you” – to a Politico correspondent who was reporting a piece about Ducklo’s recently disclosed relationship with an Axios reporter, Alexi McCammond.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki wrote on Twitter that Ducklo had been suspended for a week without pay and will not work with Politico reporters again.

Psaki said Ducklo had apologized to the Politico reporter, Tara Palmeri, “with whom he had a heated conversation about his personal life. … He is the first to acknowledge this is not the standard of behavior set out by the President.”

Ducklo, McCammond and Palmeri did not respond to emails seeking comment. An Axios spokeswoman said McCammond disclosed the relationship to her editors in November and was reassigned from a beat covering the White House.

The suspension comes after Democratic President Joe Biden, who took office last month, vowed to take a hard line on any incivility among members of his administration.

“If you’re 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 … no ifs, ands or buts,” Biden told political appointees during a virtual swearing-in ceremony. “Everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity.”

Psaki told reporters during a briefing on Friday that Biden was not involved in the decision to suspend Ducklo and stressed that the White House took the matter seriously.

Ducklo’s behavior was “completely unacceptable. He knows that,” Psaki said. “We’ve had conversations with him. … This will never happen again.”

Imagine if this would have happened in the Trump White House? Do you think the person involved would get away with a week off of work? Absolutely not — they would have been marched to the media firing line faster than a New  York minute.