White House pans Fox News reporter for ‘astroturfing’ on Biden’s age
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The White House is mocking a Fox News reporter who raised questions about President Biden’s age over the holiday weekend and then reported on his own question.
During a segment that aired on “Fox News Sunday,” correspondent Lucas Tomlinson reported that Biden, 81, “continues to face questions about his age, even here in Nantucket.”
“Mr. President are you too old to be running for reelection?” Tomlinson was heard shouting at Biden during a sound bite that aired as part of the package, following up with a question about Biden’s polling struggles.
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“That’s stupid,” Biden responded to the question about his age.
After Tomlinson’s report aired, top press aides to the president mocked the reporter for drawing attention to his own line of questioning.
“[A]re you able to speculate on whose voice that is shouting?” Andrew Bates, an aide to Biden posted Sunday on social media. “It sounds familiar to me but I’m having difficulty placing it.”
Bates and others in Biden’s White House shared online stories and media punditry pointing out that Tomlinson “failed to note in the package that played on Fox News Sunday … that he is the reporter who shouted that question,” and accusing Tomlinson of “astroturfing a political attack.”
Biden often faces shouted questions from reporters from a wide array of outlets both at the White House and while traveling on vacation or official presidential business.
Recent public polling has shown bipartisan concern about the president’s age.
The relationship between Fox, the top-watched cable news channel, and Biden’s White House has been notably tense for the duration of his presidency.
In 2022, Biden called top Fox White House reporter Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a bitch” after he asked a question about rising inflation, while Bates and others in Biden’s White House have condemned some of the programming and punditry on Fox’s airwaves with regularity.
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