President Joe Biden once branded Rupert Murdoch ‘the most dangerous man in the world’, a new book has claimed.
The Democrat, 79, also allegedly labeled Fox News ‘one of the most destructive forces in the United States’.
The claims were made in the forthcoming book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future, by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.
Biden made the comments to an unnamed associate in mid-2021 during the early months of his presidency, CNN reports.
The Australian media mogul, 91, is the founder and owner of the Fox Corporation, which runs Fox News, and his son Lachlan is the company’s CEO.
The book claims Fox is a ‘torrent of anti-Biden programming, stoking skepticism about vaccines and disseminating wild conspiracy theories about the January 6 attack.’
President Joe Biden once branded Rupert Murdoch ‘the most dangerous man in the world’, a new book has claimed
It continued: ‘The Democratic president assessed Fox as one of the most destructive forces in the United States and told an associate midway through 2021 that its corporate overlord, the Australian-born News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, was even more toxic than that.’
Burns and Martin’s book, to be published on May 3, is the first major book about the Biden-Harris administration
While Biden has not previously spoken about Murdoch in public, the president has been a frequent target of criticism by Fox and its presenters such as Tucker Carlson.
In January, Biden was overheard calling Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a ‘stupid son of a b***’ on a hot mic after a White House event.
The president made the comment while publicizing his efforts to address supply-chain issues and tackle inflation.
Biden then called Doocy to ‘clear the air’ after the exchange.
The president has also referenced his unpopularity with Fox viewers, joking in October: ‘I turn on Fox to find out how popular I am.’
Burns and Martin’s book, to be published on May 3, is the first major book about the Biden-Harris administration.
It reveals tensions between the president and vice president, claiming Biden has had concerns about Harris’ portfolio.
Biden’s communications director Kate Bedingfield blames Harris for the strains in their relationship, the book claims.
The Australian media mogul, 91, is the founder and owner of the Fox Corporation and his son Lachlan is the company’s CEO
Who are Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns?
Jonathan Martin is a national political correspondent for the New York Times who co-authored The End of the Line: Romney vs. Obama: The 34 Days That Decided the Election.
He previously worked for Politico and National Review and often appears as a CNN commentator.
Alexander Burns is also a national political correspondent for the New York Times and a political analyst for CNN.
He was one of the main reporters covering the Trump presidency.
Their book covers 18 months in the White House detailing the 2020 election, the Covid pandemic, the Capitol riots and Biden’s presidency.
As New York Times reporters, the pair had access to the White House and the book offers in-the-room accounts of the Trump and Biden administrations.
It says: ‘In private, Bedingfield had taken to noting that the vice presidency was not the first time in Harris’s political career that she had fallen short of sky-high expectations: Her Senate office had been messy and her presidential campaign had been a fiasco.
‘Perhaps, she suggested, the problem was not the vice president’s staff.’
The book also alleges that Biden’s relationship with Harris is ‘friendly but not close’, and Jill Biden was unhappy with her husband’s choice for vice president.
It reports: ‘Speaking in confidence with a close adviser to her husband’s campaign, the future first lady posed a pointed question.
‘There are millions of people in the United States, she began. Why, she asked, do we have to choose the one who attacked Joe.’
In other claims from the book, Biden allegedly confessed he did not understand Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona Democrat Senator who has opposed many of his plans.
Burns and Martin wrote: ‘One person close to the president likened Biden’s perplexity at Sinema to his difficulty grasping his grandchildren’s use of… TikTok. He wanted to relate, but he just didn’t quite get it.’
Biden complained that she had more in common with Mitt Romney than Democrats.
The White House has not commented on the claims, and Daily Mail has reached out to Fox News.
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