A Plea to Jill Biden: Reckon with Reality
A Plea to Jill Biden: Reckon with Reality
For Joe’s legacy, and for democracy, the first lady should accept the truth.
BACKSTAGE THURSDAY NIGHT, Jill Biden watched the pain in her husband’s face as he debated for the first time in four years—struggling for words, mouth hanging open, eyes squinting, voice failing.
Then the first lady soldiered forward, accompanying the president to Waffle House in Atlanta, and then a debate “watch party” where she praised her husband’s performance and attempted to shift the focus to Donald Trump. “He LIED!!!” she screamed into the microphone.
It was, perhaps, the loving thing to do. Maybe it was steely. But it also felt surreal.
The agony of the world seeing her husband unravel for nearly two hours Thursday night has apparently not changed Jill Biden’s mind about his ability to win the election or, more importantly, serve another four years in the most difficult job on the planet. By every account, the president’s wife is his closest adviser. She gets the last word in the significant debates about his future. She is not only unwavering, she is emphatic.
The question now is whether she is letting that empathy and resolve get in the way of doing what’s right.
As friendly columnists, editorial writers, and veteran political observers called for the president to step aside for a new candidate—as people waved signs at the first couple as they drove along the road in the Hamptons that read “please drop out for us,” “we love you but it’s time,” and “step down for democracy”—Jill Biden remained defiant.
She projected determination and resolve before rooms of panicked donors at multiple fundraisers this weekend, saying repeatedly that they will plow forward.
“Joe isn’t just the right person for the job. He’s the only person for the job,” she declared.
No one knows more about how profoundly Biden has aged in less than four years in the presidency than his wife. We have seen the concern in her face at events as she takes his hand to lead him in the right direction. Yet she is insistent that he carry on, even now that everything she reportedly worked so hard to shield has been exposed.
THE BIDEN FAMILY is known for hunkering down through every difficult chapter. And they’ve had many—from illness to addiction, tragedy and loss. But this challenge is different, because this time they are carrying the fate of the nation with them.
Her plan to push ahead is fraught with peril, not only for the country but for her husband personally. A campaign that follows his calamitous debate—in a race he was already losing—will demand new tests. Democrats and donors want him to have unscripted conversations with voters, give press conferences and tough interviews to prove he can remain coherent while communicating on critical issues. Biden has avoided these settings all along, likely because he cannot do that basic task.
Edward-Isaac Dovere of CNN, who is deeply sourced in Biden world, reported Sunday that the first lady is now the target of frustration from those in the president’s orbit, precisely because they view her as an obstacle. “At a LGBTQ fundraiser in New York City on Friday night, one attendee said some of the conversations even turned against Jill Biden, with the deep love for her as the quirky reluctant political spouse quickly curdling into exasperation that she is not willing to make the move that would lead to them leaving the White House,” he wrote.
By the end of the weekend, the anger was being deflected elsewhere. As the family gathered for a photo shoot at Camp David, the discussion was not about saving Joe Biden’s career or the country but how to tamp down criticism and potentially fire staff who—in the family’s view—had not done the job of preparing the president for the debate, according to the New York Times. (Biden himself, however, reportedly did not blame staff and told them so directly.)
Blaming loyal aides who have worked closely with the president for decades—after we watched Biden’s mind escape him and he said things like women are being raped by their sisters and “we finally beat Medicare”—is desperate and irrational.
The first lady, who holds all the cards, is trying to avoid facing the painful truth. On Monday morning, she was on the cover of Vogue—stunning in an ivory Ralph Lauren coat dress. The profile had been in the works for months, and the timing was terrible. A final phone call Sunday night provided a post-debate quote from Jill: “We will continue to fight.”
The Bidens can fight, but majorities of voters told pollsters the president was too old for the job back in 2021, and then again—with the number rising—each subsequent year.
THE DEBATE IMPLOSION won’t be solved by grit, loyalty, and gaslighting. The likely bet in July 2024 is that Biden will hand the American experiment over to Trump in November and will live out his remaining days remembered for hubris and vanity instead of a fifty-year career in public service and a great presidency.
Jill Biden should understand this. She is not choosing to protect his legacy. She is risking instead that her husband, who has often said he is a respecter of fate, will go down in history for ending democracy in a fight with Father Time.