US President Donald Trump called a female reporter “piggy” after her question about sex offender Jeffery Epstein.
According to The Guardian, the US president on Friday, November 14, during a lash onboard Air Force One with Bloomberg News reporter Catherine Lucey called her ‘piggy,” sparking widespread backlash.
Trump, who is not new to making extremely personal comments about the female journalists, is once again surrounded with controversy for his harsh comments for Lucey.
When the Bloomberg correspondent asked the 79-year-old about recently released disgraced financier Epstein documents, which included emails mentioning Trump, he harshly asked her to keep quiet.
As Lucey began to ask Trump why he was behaving the way he was “if there is nothing incriminating in the files”, the US president, while pointing at her, said, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”
The comments made by the Republican president last week did not get much attention at that time but started gaining the spotlight on Tuesday, November 18, after a fellow journalist publicly criticised and condemned them.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper shared the clip of the incident on social media and wrote on X, “Disgusting and completely unacceptable,” while former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson called the remarks “disgusting and degrading.”
Furthermore, the incident sparked debate on social media a Bloomberg spokesperson on Tuesday afternoon stated, “Our White House journalists perform a vital public service, asking questions without fear or favour. We remain focused on reporting issues of public interest fairly and accurately.”
Meanwhile, a White House official justified Trump’s behaviour with the female journalist to the Daily Mail, claiming that Lucey behaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional way towards her colleagues on the plane.
