White House Spokesperson Forced to Resign Reportedly Given Second Chance Two Years After Berating Reporter 

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Politico is reporting that President Biden’s former deputy press secretary who was forced to resign shortly after Biden’s inauguration is “on the cusp” of joining the Biden “reelection campaign as a senior communications official.”

TJ Ducklo had a dust-up with then-Politico reporter Tara Palmeri for questioning his romantic relationship with Axios reporter Alexi McCammond in 2020. 

Palmeri was working on the story from an ethics angle. Is it ethical for the White House deputy press secretary to have a romantic relationship with a member of the press covering the Biden administration? 

Unfortunately for the American people, there is no longer an adversarial relationship between those in power and the press as long as the people in power are Democrats. 

Biden came off as a tough guy telling his aides during a swearing-in ceremony on Inauguration Day, “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. On the spot,” he repeated. 

“No ifs, ands, or buts – everybody, everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity,” the president continued. “That’s been missing in a big way for the last four years.”

When it came out that Ducklo berated Palmeri after Biden made his proclamation on what happens if you talk down to someone, there was a delay in punishment. 

Biden took some criticism for the delay and is again facing criticism for reportedly allowing Ducklo to return. 

Palmeri, who now works for Puck, publicly shared that she and Ducklo have kissed and made up. 

She wrote in a piece, “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.”

“Some thought he was demeaning, but nobody who approached me afterward said that he had ever crossed the line as he did with me. For what it’s worth, I never wanted Ducklo to be fired from the White House.”

“I won’t rehash the words that were exchanged after Ducklo called me, but since he was forced to resign from his dream job, we sat down together for coffee months later and had a long talk. And he seemed to be genuinely sorry,” Palmeri wrote.

“He said he had learned from the experience and vowed to never talk to a reporter or person like that again. I trusted him. Everyone has bad days and they shouldn’t have to pay for them for the rest of their lives. In fact, I told anyone who privately reached out to me about hiring Ducklo that I believed he deserved another chance.”

“There are some people who deserve to be canceled, but T.J. Ducklo is not one of them…”

According to Vanity Fair, Ducklo told Palmeri “I will destroy you” and promised to “ruin her reputation if she published a story” about him and McCammond.

He said she was jealous of the relationship and made some “derogatory and misogynistic comments.”

While you may agree that everyone has bad days and shouldn’t have to pay for them for the rest of their lives, making a proclamation of zero tolerance for such behavior, as Biden did in 2021, makes it hypocritical to allow the guy back into the fold.