I have to get this off my chest because it is bothering me.

[Blue_true]

I apologize if this had been discussed.

The situation with the Deputy Press Secretary really bothers me. I feel that his ass should have been fired and here is why. The alleged language that he used, to me, denotes a person that is turned on by the trappings of power. In my experience, the most influential powerful people have been the ones that were not taken by having power, but instead were relentlessly mission driven, to give an extreme, they were just as comfortable and content having dinner at a homeless shelter with homeless people as they were being part of a glitzy affair that drew in the rich and powerful.

I read the articles about his actions and that he was not fired is bothersome. A mission driven person would have never done what he did to begin with. We need mission driven Democrats surrounding President Biden, IMO.

[Raven123]

1. I agree

[Proud liberal 80]

2. Wow

63 recs in less than a minute

[questionseverything]

32. Over an hour later it's 74 recs but

In my greatest thread list it says 16 recs

And minutes later an article is posted saying his resignation has been accepted

And from what I have gathered it’s because he “threatened “ to ruin a reporter’s career and spoke to same reporter , in an off the record conversation,in a non professional manner


We eat our own time after time

Acorn, franken and now this young man who apparently has been battling cancer while busting his butt to get Biden elected

[brooklynite]

41. So we should excuse bad behavior because the Republicans do?

[questionseverything]

48. I think it is too early to tell

Are we saying only perfect people can be democrats? Or work in their administrations?

We will be out of people fast

[brooklynite]

51. There's a wide spread between "perfect" and abusive behavior.

[questionseverything]

54. It is a rush to judgement

In a week most of us won’t remember this guys name, unless he is independently wealthy he will now die without healthcare, maybe it’s karma since he worked so hard to get the guy elected that promised to veto m4a if it came across his desk

Shrugs

[brooklynite]

55. So President Biden "rushed to judgement"?

[Autumn]

52. Just shows how M4A would benefit all Americans. Non professional? The man was abusive,

and made threats to destroy another person, and not for the first time. Reminiscent of what we have had to deal with for the last 4 years. He made the choice to lose his insurance. I have no sympathy for him and IMO we lost nothing. The American people got Biden elected, he just happened to work on a well run campaign.

During the off-the-record call, Ducklo made derogatory and misogynistic comments, accusing Palmeri of only reporting on his relationship—which, due to the ethics questions that factor into the relationship between a journalist and White House official, falls under the purview of her reporting beat—because she was “jealous” that an unidentified man in the past had “wanted to fuck” McCammond “and not you.” Ducklo also accused Palmeri of being “jealous” of his relationship with McCammond. (Palmeri had no prior relationship or communication with McCammond before calling her to report on the Playbook item, which was a story that she was assigned and had not independently pursued.)

Ducklo’s threats, spurring multiple conversations between the news outlet and senior-level officials on January 21, including White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield, and Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn. In one of those calls, senior White House officials acknowledged that Ducklo’s handling of the call with Palmeri was inappropriate and said he would send a note to her apologizing for the comments. In another conversation, the same White House officials took aim at Palmeri by accusing her of breaking an off-the-record agreement with Ducklo and pressing Politico as to why the contents of the call had been revealed. Palmeri had only informed her editors of the contents of the call, which she had transcribed into her notes as it was happening, after they asked her about it.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/02/i-will-destroy-you-biden-aide-threatened-a-politico-reporter-pursuing-a-story-on-his-relationship

[BainsBane]

56. Biden has standards for his White House

He announced them his first day in office, and this guy flagrantly violated them. Biden has no responsibility to keep people who behave badly in his White House, even though you think Democrats should never be fired regardless of what they do, and Biden is not a liar--as much as you insist he act like one to protect any random Democrat.

[rzemanfl]

3. This

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10021028

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. He has resigned.

My guess is that he was strongly urged to do so.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Good.

[leftieNanner]

7. I think he should have resigned immediately

But I think it was appropriate for the WH to investigate first.

I am surprised that someone like him got as far as he did in this administration with that kind of a mouth and attitude.

[Blue_true]

8. Maybe the pressure of him being terminally ill played into it.

I don’t know. I do know that even when I am enraged, I try to calm down when talking to a person, the most influential people that I have been around in life followed that rule and I copied their behavior.

[leftieNanner]

10. Terminally Ill??

I didn't know that.

Your advice to calm down is always a good idea.

When my kids were little, we used time outs for when any of us were angry, not as a form of punishment. I was upset for some reason or other and chose to take myself outside for a time out instead of yelling at the girls. It worked well for us.

[Blue_true]

16. Several people say that he has Stage 4 cancer.

One person said long cancer that has spread through his body. Some rare people overcome that, but most don’t.

[leftieNanner]

18. Terrible.

Thanks for letting me know.

[edhopper]

9. He does have stage four terminal lung cancer

that might have played into his behavior.

[Blue_true]

12. I have to grant that possibility.

I have seen something like that happen before in my life, a terminally ill young man (early thirties) was grossly abusive to people, that to me, he thought he was better than. After tolerating it until I could not take anymore, I finally confronted him and verbally ripped him a new asshole. He said nothing as I recounted instances of his conduct while I verbally ripped him apart. I found out a few months later that he was terminally ill and had died. While there is some sorrow, to this day I don’t regret confronting him about how he treated some people.

[W_HAMILTON]

26. Where did you hear that it is terminal?

[edhopper]

28. It has a 7 percent

survival rate.

[W_HAMILTON]

29. Maybe so, but that is far different than his particular case being declared terminal.

[bamagal62]

11. What did he do?

[Blue_true]

13. He threaten to destroy a reporter and used sexist language toward her.

I found out a few minutes ago that he is likely terminally ill, but I don’t believe that justifies his conduct.

[StarfishSaver]

15. It certainly doesn't justify his conduct, but it may be why the Biden team took more time

[StarfishSaver]

14. I think his illness had something to do with it

Biden has promised to be really tough on people in these situations, but he's also not a ruthless or cruel person. I suspect the delay was related to allowing him to find alternate healthcare or something along those lines.

What he did was bad and warranted harsh discipline and in someone else's case, immediate firing was likely exactly the right response. But in this case, such an act might have been the equivalent of a death sentence, so I'm not surprised that Biden and his team handled it a little differently. If that's the case, it speaks well of them.

[Blue_true]

17. Good and reasonable perspective. nt

[Hoyt]

19. He sounds like someone who life has dumped on, considering his health issues.

I get the need for his “resignation,” but I don’t think this was in character or because of the trappings of power.

[Blue_true]

22. I can see it better now after finding out about his condition.

A young man, found someone to fall in love with, gets a horrible medical prognosis, gets closer to his love, then find out that someone wants to write about his romantic relationship.

I still think that he could have handled the situation another way, maybe have other staff approach the person that was about to write the story and explain all the circumstances.

[Hoyt]

36. Yeah, I was all for piling on him too until I read the rest of the story.

Agree, there was a better way, but . . . . .

[Blue_true]

37. I don't know what his future arrangements are.

I believe that President Biden is too decent a person to just cut him lose. So, hopefully something that doesn’t come up against ethics issues has been arranged. But, I hope that President Biden staff keep in touch with him, and if he needs money to handle his medical expenses, get a friend outside the Administration to organize a GoFundMe account for him.

DU member mcar posted an article that detailed the first weeks after his diagnosis, one of the encouraging items that I read was the type of cancer that he has responds to newly developed treatments and that he could possibly live a longer life with the cancer, or better, have it go into remission.

[mcar]

20. Are you aware that he has stage IV cancer?

Do you think that might have caused him to behave out of character?

Are you aware that he apologized quite profusely to the reporter?

He is a young man who is dying and now has no health insurance. I have compassion for him.

[SharonClark]

21. How do you know he had no insurance or that

his behavior was out of character?

[mcar]

23. I asked if the OP had given a thought

to the idea that his cancer treatment might cause some personality changes. I presume that, now that he is unemployed, he has lost his health insurance.

[Blue_true]

24. I understand his health situation now.

But I still believe he could have handled the situation differently. He could have had another staffer approach the reporter to explain why the story would touch on sensitive areas.

Now that I know what his health situation is, I can better understand why the Biden Administration superiors didn’t lower the boom on him out the gate.

There are democratic organizations that he could, and may have joined. He disappears into such an organization and has a salary and health insurance. Maybe such an outcome is why the resolution was delayed for a couple of weeks, at least I hope so.

[mcar]

25. Thanks Blue_true

Yes, he could have handled it better. I'm seeing Politico reporters on Twitter gloating at the prospect of a dying young man being tossed out, like they got a notch in their belts, and it makes me sick.

[Blue_true]

27. If they know that he is likely terminally ill and are gloating,

that doesn’t say any thing good about them.

[mcar]

30. They have to know.

[Blue_true]

31. They may not. See what happens in a day or so once word gets out.

A lot of people keep a life threatening medical condition under wraps. A reason like that could be why he didn’t want the reporter snooping around in his personal life.

[mcar]

33. He actually announced it during the campaign

https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/10/16/tj-ducklo-32-joe-bidens-press-secretary-and-he-has-stage-4-cancer/

[Blue_true]

34. I see your point. Thanks. nt

[mcar]

35. ...

[KentuckyWoman]

43. Then put him on medical leave.

If his illness is the reason he can't behave, it still means he should not be in the office.

The behavior is a deal breaker. Go home. Be with family. Do the bucket list.

Tell people the truth. He's sick. He had a really bad day and acted like a jerk. We all agree getting him time out of office is better for everyone so he is taking paid leave. No reporter should have to worry over being treated poorly. Ever.

Sickness is not a reason to keep him on the job.

[BainsBane]

38. He was fired

That's what asking for someone's resignation is.

[Blue_true]

39. Pretty sad story.

My guess is given his health circumstances, President Biden would not cut him loose without a landing place for him. Read the Washington Post article that DU member mcar posted in response to my post. Really tough situation for the guy, I was all over him, but after knowing more, hope that he will be ok. He was an up and coming NYC public relations person before quitting that job to join then candidate Biden in 2019, with the goal of removing Trump from office. Read the WP article, then you get a better sense of why the Press Secretary suspended him instead of firing him.

[KentuckyWoman]

40. 100% agreement

He should have been let go the day they knew the accusation was true.

[Blue_true]

42. The likely reason they didn't is that he has a sad and powerful backstory.

Read the Washington Post article that DU member mcar posted.

[KentuckyWoman]

53. I did and mentioned in a post above

Either way he needs to be out of the office. Reporters should not have to worry about abuse. If his illness is affecting how he treats people, well that is totally understandable. Medical leave, paid personal leave, severance that includes plenty of income and paid health benefits ... they are all options to take care of him plus get him away from where he can do harm.

Illness is not an "out" for poor behavior. It only changes how it is dealt with.

[Blue_true]

57. Your solution would have worked.

Hopefully he will have the resources that he needs to tackle his illness. From what I read, it is a cancer that responds to newer treatments and he could live a life similar to a person with HIV, or have the cancer go into remission.

But to your central point, his illness does not excuse his behavior, no one should face verbal abuse. It is ok to hold people accountable, but that can be done without verbally abusing them.

[UTUSN]

44. Uh, one of the Recs is from a deceased DUer & another one not posting since '16. Tribute/permission?

[Blue_true]

45. I have no idea. I don't rec my OPs.

Normally I don’t get a lot of Recs to my OPs, so I have no idea how 63 appeared in a flash.

[UTUSN]

46. No reference to you. Just that 2 names smacked me in the eyes. Something's going on?

[JI7]

47. Pinboy and average joe ? I checked to see if they were new names

with maybe a different letter or number or something but it traces back to the original profiles .

Maybe some issue with the website .

[UTUSN]

49. The other one, Cleita. Just seems that something odd is going on. I dm-ed the senior host of GD.

[JI7]

50. Pastiche also . Since it's so many of them pretty sure it's an issue with the website .