White House covered up staffer's threats against reporter

Remember when Democrats had higher standards than this? Pepperidge Farm remembers. That's why the Democrats were the party I originally registered with. But I'm thoroughly ashamed of some of the things Democrats have done over the past, well, 25 years.

TJ Ducklo is a deputy press secretary in the Biden administration who has worked for many media outlets. Now it's been revealed that Ducklo made threats against a journalist for reporting on a relationship he had with another reporter. Ducklo told a Politico reporter he would "destroy" her for reporting the story. Ducklo reportedly then made a series of comments that included calling the reporter "jealous" because of an alleged past relationship.

Upon taking office, President Biden said this about his staff: "If you are ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot." But he didn't. Instead, the White House covered up Ducklo's threats. Administration officials waited until after media outlets broke the story before they did anything. Even after that, the only action they took against Ducklo was suspending him for a week. In fact, the White House kept blaming the reporter who was the target of the threats and unprofessional comments.

This sort of behavior never would have been tolerated at most workplaces I'm familiar with. If I did something like this, I'd be fired - no ifs, ands, or buts.

When I first voted when I was 18, I voted a straight Democratic ticket, because I wanted to have good colleges and I wanted people to be respected. After all, weren't the Democrats the party of education and civil liberties? I didn't sign up for covering up presidential staffers' misdeeds.