A brief history of stupid questions pitched at presidents and presidential candidates

It didn't start with Peter Doocy. Questions and non-questions whose answers are entirely superfluous go back half a century.

“Do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?”

Peter Doocy of Fox News asked President Joe Biden that on Monday, much as one might ask whether a bear shits in the woods, or whether the Pope is Catholic.

In reply, Biden mumbled into a hot mic, “It’s a great ask, that. More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.” (The White House transcription came up with “great asset,” which sounds more like what came out of Biden’s mouth, but I think he was slurring his words, as people sometimes do when they mumble; see Durst, Robert.)

The Twitterverse was madly titillated by Biden’s indiscretion, and Biden duly apologized to Doocy. But three things were, it seems to me, clear:

1. It really was a dumb question.

2. Peter Doocy is a repeat offender.

3. But before you tee off on Doocy and Fox News, please note that reporters from more respectable news organizations have been pitching stupid questions at presidents and presidential candidates for half a century—and most if not all these reporters were far from stupid.

In my latest New Republic piece, I try to explain why the questioning of presidents and presidential candidates on television shifted from an inquisitive function to a performative one, reviewing the examples not only of Doocy but also of Dan Rather to Richard Nixon in March 1974 (“No, Mr. President, are you?”) and Ted Koppel to Mike Dukakis in October 1988 (“With all due respect, let me suggest to you I still don’t think you get it.”). I’m still pissed off at Koppel about his you-don’t-get-it snub, because the outcome was not one Bush presidency but two, the second of which was so bad it made everybody nostalgic for the first. (People tend to forget that nowadays because Donald Trump’s presidency made everybody nostalgic for both Bushes.)

In my New Republic piece I also identify four questions asked at Biden’s last formal press conference that, while not quite so pompous and stupid as Doocy’s, were definitely in the same ballpark. To find out what these were—and which of them came from he Newsmax guy—click here.