The Trump White House is standing by its latest hire, who wore a “F--K JOE BIDEN” T-shirt for a holiday picture.
Beni Rae Harmony, Trump’s new 24-year-old assistant White House press secretary, posed for a Christmas picture in 2020 wearing the vulgar shirt and holding a rifle.
The picture was posted on Instagram in November 2021 by a far-right Republican House candidate, Jarome Bell, who ran an unsuccessful congressional campaign in 2022.
“My campaign Public Affairs Director @beniraeharmony is a beast. This is how we roll,” he posted.
Harmony liked the picture, and her LinkedIn profile shows she worked on a Virginia-based congressional campaign at the time.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on Harmony’s vile shirt, but did not receive a direct response. The White House only offered a recycled statement from deputy press secretary Anna Kelly praising Harmony, calling her “a trusted voice for the MAGA movement” during her previous role.
“She will be an outstanding addition to President Trump’s communications team as an Assistant Press Secretary—we look forward to having her on board!” Kelly said.
Before working for the campaign, Harmony also interned for far-right Republicans such as Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar and the scandal-ridden former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz.
While working for Gosar, who was a prominent figure involved in Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement, she recorded a strange defense of him after he was censured by the House for posting a crazed video that showed him killing Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking Joe Biden.
She joined the White House press team amid a staff exodus, which worsened when former press secretary Karoline Leavitt resigned in August.
Harmony had worked as a White House correspondent for the right-wing network Real America’s Voice before her gig in the Trump White House.
The website is known for playing Steve Bannon’s weekday show and The Charlie Kirk Show. Its parent company, Performance One Media, is also owned by a rather unsavory character, Robert Sigg.
Sigg has gotten in trouble with the law for domestic violence, burglary, drug distribution, driving under the influence, and assault, charges that were later dropped. He also has a record of white-collar crime, pleading guilty to one count of bank fraud stemming from his role in a $19 million mortgage-fraud scheme in 2006.
In 2013, his son, Austin, was sentenced to life in prison at age 17 in 2013 for kidnapping and murdering 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway.
Harmony had joined Real America’s Voice after leaving a local news station in Springfield, Illinois. She claimed she was suspended from that role after sharing an unprompted on-air tribute to right-wing activist Charlie Kirk after he was killed last year.
