Video of John McCain Calling Peter Doocy's Question 'Dumb' Resurfaces After Biden Gaffe

A video clip of Senator John McCain calling a question from Fox News' Peter Doocy "dumb" has resurfaced online after Joe Biden on Monday referred to the reporter as a "stupid son of a b***h."

McCain—a Republican U.S. senator for Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018—clashed with Doocy in October 2017 over the reporter's line of questioning about his relationship with then-President Donald Trump.

In the wake of Biden's comment about Doocy, some Twitter users began sharing the archive clip of McCain's remarks.

Video of the exchange uploaded by Twitter user @TheAnuHart on Monday has been viewed more than 250,000 times.

Democratic strategist Kaivan Shroff also shared an old tweet of his own featuring the footage.

His tweet containing the video—viewed more than 290,000 times since it was first uploaded in August 2021—was liked more than 10,000 times since it was posted on Monday evening.

A tweet sharing Shroff's upload was also posted by Chris Strider, a former video editor for Biden's presidential campaign, and liked more than 6,000 times in under 24 hours. Other Twitter users also shared the video.

In the clip, Doocy asked McCain about his relationship with former President Trump.

"Has your relationship with the president frayed to the point that you are not going to support anything that he comes to you and asks for?" Doocy asked.

"Why would you say something that stupid?" McCain responded "Why would you ask something that dumb? Huh? My job as a United States senator, as a senator from Arizona, which I was just reelected to."

"You mean that I am somehow going to behave in a way that I'm going to block everything because of some personal disagreement? That's a dumb question," the senator said.

The incident took place on October 18, 2017, and was widely reported at the time amid long-term tensions between McCain and Trump.

The senator had delivered a speech in Philadelphia that appeared to take aim at Trump's at approach to foreign policy. In it, McCain criticized "half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems."

The late Senator, who was the GOP presidential nominee in 2008, was well-known for his sometimes acerbic attitude, and his career in the Senate overlapped with Biden's time there. Biden was former President Barack Obama's running mate when Obama defeated McCain.

Doocy has worked at Fox News since 2009 and became White House Correspondent in January 2021, a week before Biden took office.

Biden's comment at a press conference on Monday came after Doocy asked him: "Do you think inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms?"

"No, it's a great asset. More inflation. What a stupid son of a b***h," the president was heard saying into a hot mic.

Doocy later told Fox News' Sean Hannity that Biden had called him about an hour after the remarks and "cleared the air" but suggested the president had not apologized.

"But you know what, I don't need anybody to apologize to me. He can call me whatever he wants, as long as it gets him talking," Doocy told Hannity.