US President Joe Biden has been caught swearing at a reporter during a news conference after his mic seemed to accidentally pick up his reaction to a question.
The president had been holding the conference following a meeting with the White House Competition Council.
As reporters were being ushered out of the room, Fox News’ White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Mr Biden: “Will you take questions on inflation then? Do you think inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms?”
Despite voices in the background being heard saying “no thank you” after the question was put to the president, he responded without realising his microphone was still turned on.
Fox News’ White House correspondent Peter Doocy put a question about inflation to the president
“That’s a great asset – more inflation. What a stupid son of a b***h,” the president said.
After the blunder, his mic was quickly turned off and Mr Biden looked quite surprised as he appeared to notice his mistake.
The White House has insisted repeatedly that it is focused on curbing inflation, which is at a nearly 40-year high in the US.
“I couldn’t even hear him’
Mr Doocy later appeared on Fox News to discuss the incident where he explained he didn’t even hear the president’s response and found out what had been said once the news conference had finished.
“I couldn’t even hear him because people were shouting at us to get out but somebody came up to me a few minutes later in the briefing room and said, ‘did you hear what the president said?'” Mr Doocy added.
Joking around with the hosts of the show, he said: “The White House and the communications officials here had been signalling last week when they had their first year in office anniversary that they were going to take a different approach with reporters.
“We thought that meant after he did a two-hour press conference, he was just going to be available for Q&As more often but maybe it’s more stuff like this.”