White House backs newly hired press aide amid controversy over anti‑Biden shirt and rifle photo

The White House has come to the defense of a recently appointed press aide who appeared in a 2021 holiday photo wearing a shirt that read “Fuck Joe Biden” while holding a rifle.

Beni Rae Harmony, the newly appointed assistant White House press secretary, announced on Friday that she would be joining Donald Trump’s team only a few days after reporting on him for Real America’s Voice—a partisan right‑leaning outlet that began as a video podcast for former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

Her LinkedIn profile shows that the 24‑year‑old Harmony once produced content for far‑right commentator Jack Posobiec of Turning Point USA and served as a press aide specializing in crisis management for Republican lawmakers Paul Gosar of Arizona and former Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida.

In 2021, after Representative Gosar was censured by the House for sharing an animated video that showed him attacking Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez and President Biden, Harmony posted a vigorous defense of her boss on his YouTube channel.

A photograph showing Harmony and an older man posing with rifles while wearing matching anti‑Biden shirts in front of Christmas décor was allegedly posted on Instagram in November 2021 by Jarome Bell, a far‑right Republican House candidate whose 2022 congressional bid ultimately failed.

A screenshot of that Instagram post, later published by the Daily Mirror, featured the caption: “My campaign Public Affairs Director @beniraeharmony is a beast. This is how we roll.”

In December 2021, Harmony seemed to confirm the photo’s authenticity after it was circulated by the anti‑Maga site PatriotTakes, which also noted her role as an aide to Representative Gosar.

The following day, Harmony responded to the PatriotTakes post with a second selfie—same shirt, same setting, smiling at the camera. When a social media user jokingly asked whether the older man was her “daughter or date,” she replied with a single word: “Uncle.”

At that time, President Biden was serving his only term in the Oval Office, and the chant “Fuck Joe Biden” heard from Trump supporters at a NASCAR race that fall sparked a viral meme that riffed on the slogan.

Harmony did not respond to requests for comment on the photo. However, the White House press office issued a statement from Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly, who commended the new hire for her advocacy of the Trump‑backed Make America Great Again agenda, even as she was ostensibly reporting on the president as a journalist.

Kelly wrote, “Beni Rae Harmony has been a trusted voice for the MAGA movement while serving as a White House correspondent. She will be an outstanding addition to President Trump’s communications team as an Assistant Press Secretary, and we look forward to having her on board.”

Harmony enters a White House press office that has taken unprecedented measures to keep the president constantly surrounded by sympathetic correspondents from partisan outlets who lavish him with praise, while restricting or denying access to journalists from nonpartisan outlets who pose challenging questions.

Trump has attempted to bar CNN, Politico, and MSNBC from the White House altogether, claiming they provide excessively negative coverage. His staff now decides which outlets may ask him questions, frequently reserving slots for correspondents who openly back him.

Harmony assumed the role of White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice after her predecessor, Brian Glenn, fell out of favor with Trump when his partner, Marjorie Taylor Greene, broke with the president and accused him of betraying the MAGA movement.

Glenn had previously worked to advance Trump’s agenda when invited by the president to pose questions. In 2025, for example, he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on why he declined to wear a suit in the Oval Office—a question that heightened an already tense exchange.

During a press availability aboard Air Force One last month, Trump approached reporters holding a stack of papers in his left hand. Harmony posed a series of friendly questions that appeared intended to help him gain political advantage. TMZ reported on Friday that Associated Press photos from the encounter showed Harmony’s name at the top of the first page in the president’s hand, indicating he may have been reviewing her résumé while she questioned him.

In 2025, Harmony gained notice in right‑wing media after she resigned from her on‑air hosting position at a local TV station in Springfield, Illinois, following an on‑air tribute to the late Charlie Kirk, whom she described as her first boss and mentor.

The station’s news director denied that Harmony had been suspended because of the tribute, as she had asserted, and clarified that she was never part of the news team; instead, she hosted a program produced by the station’s sales department that featured paying clients who wished to be interviewed on television.

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