Thursday 16 June 2022 07:10 PM Fox News journalists Steve and Peter Doocy tell DailyMail.com how they get ... trends now
Top Fox host Steve Doocy still ties his son's neckties – but says Peter Doocy's meteoric rise as the channel's White House correspondent has outstripped even his own success.
The proud father and loving son spoke to DailyMail.com in an exclusive video interview ahead of Father's Day, Steve beaming as he recounted his son's accomplishments and Peter fondly recalling his visits to Fox HQ as a kid and playing catch with his old man: the only baseball coach who would have him.
Peter, 34, is the eldest of three. His sister Sally, 28, also works at Fox News as a senior manager and sister Mary, 32, is Assistant General Counsel at the FBI.
Steve, 65, has been co-host of cable's highest-rated morning news program Fox & Friends since 1998 and his wife Kathy is a former TV sports reporter.
So while some may have expected their son to join the family business - not Steve.
'Peter was never going to get into television because he was unattractive,' he joked while his son sat beside him. 'He would either go into business school or become a lawyer or something professional like that.
'Then he asked a question of John McCain during the 2008 presidential campaign when he was in college. That single question changed the arc of his life.'
Proud father Steve Doocy and loving son Peter Doocy spoke to DailyMail.com in an exclusive video interview ahead of Father's Day
The father and son are pictured at the North Lawn of the White House in 2018, shortly before President Trump walked out for an exclusive live half hour interview with Steve on Fox News
Steve has been co-host of Fox & Friends since 1998 and his wife, Kathy, is a former TV sports reporter. Steve, Kathy and Peter are pictured at Ronald Reagan's White House Easter egg roll in 1988. Peter, nine months old, is seen chewing on his father's White House press credential
'Peter was never going to get into television because he was unattractive,' Steve joked about his son, who is pictured at the podium in the White House briefing room in 2007 while he was a Villanova University sophomore. Peter is standing about eight feet from his current assigned seat in the briefing room
A video of the 2008 event shows Peter, now 34, as a student at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, asking McCain in front of an audience of hundreds: 'I'm sure that you saw one of your Democratic opponents Hillary Clinton recently drinking whisky shots with some potential voters.
'I was wondering if you think that she's finally resorted to hitting the sauce just because of some unfavorable polling? And I was also wondering if you would care to join me for a shot after this?'
Peter says that away from the podium, his conversations with Jen Psaki are far more personable
The cheeky question won the young journalist the attention of his dad's bosses, and set him on a career that would lead to more irreverent questions, many asked in the White House briefing room.
Those pointed probes, and outgoing press secretary Jen Psaki's sharp retorts, were fodder for memes made by both conservatives and liberals celebrating the supposed political punch-up.
But Peter says that away from the podium, his conversations with Psaki were far more personable. 'On TV you've got to make it quick and off camera you don't,' he told DailyMail.com.
'When I talk to her privately, you're not so pressed for time. And so we're able to actually have thoughtful chats about different things.
'We had a very nice chat on her last day, just kind of reflecting on everything over the last year and a half. We posted a photo that was shared widely.'
The May 13 tweet shows 6'6' Peter towering over reportedly 5'5' Psaki, both smiling with one arm around each other.
Steve revealed Peter gives his height an even greater boost with an extra three inches of coiffed hair, for which he credits Kathy.
'The main influence from his parents regarding his career is from his mother. He's got his mother's hair. He's 6'6', but with the hair he's 6'9',' he said. 'It's all about volume.'
During the interview with DailyMail.com both men opined on the prospects of the Biden administration, the chances of a 2024 Trump ticket, and whether the new White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will measure up to Jen Psaki's famously fiery exchanges with Peter.
Peter said he plans on watching Paski's planned new MSNBC on Peacock show – and may even call in for another verbal sparring match for old time's sake.
He also had kind words for Jean-Pierre.
'She used to be very proactive about reaching out, trying to gauge what kind of stories I was going to be covering. So we have had a good working relationship,' Peter said.
'I think once she gets settled in, she will be a great advocate for the President, the same as Jen was.'
The journalist's relationship with President Joe Biden has not always been collegiate. He's seen on Fox News talking about a bust up with the president earlier this year
On January 24 Peter called out asking if Biden thought inflation was a political liability for his administration. Biden smiled but muttered into the hot microphone calling Doocy 'a stupid son of a b***h'
The White House correspondent brushed off the barb however, and revealed that Biden actually asked his staff to allow tougher questions from the press
Peter (pictured at a White House press briefing) admits that, even in his 30s, he needs his father to tie his neck tie for him. 'He ties them once and then I just kind of loosen them and tighten them up again'
Celebrating Father's Day this year
The week before Father's Day we are all gathering for my son-in-law Ali Sadri's birthday, and since it's so hard to get right adults who live in different cities in the same place at the same time, we will have an early Dad's Day celebration in Dallas. Then I will try to talk TSA into allowing me to carry on board my gifts which will certainly include an array of exotic and ultimately dangerous BBQ tools.
Favorite Memory
To do Fox & Friends I get up at 3.30 every morning, including weekends (hard habit to break), so on Father's Day morning when the kids would finally wake up (around 8) and go into the kitchen to make me breakfast in bed, when they finally have it prepared, they'd beg me to please go back to the bedroom and climb under the covers, so they can serve me breakfast in bed, even though I got up four hours earlier, and already had breakfast and was ready for lunch.
Best Gift
We love to make things with our own two hands to give each other when we can, and about 25 years ago Kathy and Peter, Mary and Sally decorated and personalized individual picture frames. They have been sitting on my desk every day since then and every time I glance over, that takes me back to when they were still actual kids, and it makes me smile.
Photographs of the children in frames they all decorated for Father's Day 2000
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The journalist's relationship with President Joe Biden has not always been as congenial as with his spokeswoman.
Before he was allowed a front row seat and designated question time in presidential briefings, Peter was forced to lob questions from the back of the room.
On January 24 he called out asking if Biden thought inflation was a political liability for his administration. Biden
