The provided text excerpt is about Jill Biden’s role in her husband Joe Biden’s political career, specifically her support for his presidential run despite concerns about his age and performance in debates.The provided text excerpt is about Jill Biden’s role in her husband Joe Biden’s political career, specifically her support for his presidential run despite concerns about his age and performance in debates. The text mentions that: * Jill Biden initially opposed Joe Biden’s run for president in 2004 but later changed her mind and became a strong supporter. * Jill Biden has been vocal in defending her husband against criticism of his mental acuity and debate performances. * Some Democratic party members have called for Joe Biden to step down due to age concerns, but Jill Biden has expressed her support for his candidacy. * Jill Biden has been actively campaigning for her husband, attending political events and speaking out in his favor. * Jill Biden’s support for her husband is seen as influential within his inner circle. The text also notes that Jill Biden maintains a full-time job as a community college teacher while serving as First Lady, and that she generally defers to her husband on political decisions.
By Steve Holland and Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When a group of visiting political advisers tried to convince then-Senator Joe Biden to run for president in 2004, his wife Jill sat fuming by the pool at their home.
Finally, she took action. She drew the word “NO” in large ink letters on her stomach and “walked around the room in my bikini,” she wrote. He decided not to run around this time.
The anecdote, which Jill Biden recounts in her 2019 autobiography, “Where the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself,” makes clear that she hasn’t always been comfortable with the idea of her husband running for president.
But she later changed her mind and now, after his stumbling debate performance last week against Republican rival Donald Trump, the first lady is instead saying “No” to the idea of Biden dropping out of the race.
While some Democratic party members are calling on the 81-year-old Biden to acknowledge that he is too old for a second term, Jill Biden appears to be standing her ground.
“Joe is not only the right person for the job,” she told donors in East Hampton, New York, on Saturday. “He’s the only person for the job.”
“She has dug her heels in to support the president. She is the most ardent and fervent supporter, campaigner, surrogate, advocate and protector of anyone around him, and clearly has enormous influence,” said Anita McBride, who was chief of staff to First Lady Laura Bush and co-author of “U.S. First Ladies: Making History and Leaving Legacies.”
President Biden, married to Jill for 47 years, has leaned heavily on his 73-year-old wife as he battles doubts about his mental acuity and weathers the political storm over his performance in debates.
In “American Woman,” a book about first ladies in the modern era, author Katie Rogers wrote that when Biden faces a tough decision, he often turns to Jill as his “gut check” and closest confidante.
The first lady, who once physically blocked a protester from the Los Angeles stage where Biden was speaking in 2020, is not only standing by his side, she is also trying to drum up support for him among Democrats.
“Joe, you did a great job, you answered every question, you knew all the facts,” Jill told him at a post-debate viewing party in Atlanta, earning him some scorn on social media.
On Friday night, at a fundraiser in New York, she recounted a conversation she had with Biden after the debate.
“‘You know, Jill, I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t feeling great.’ And I said, ‘Look, Joe, we’re not going to let 90 minutes define your four years as president,’” she said.
Biden has always had a close circle of family members and senior advisers around her. The first lady is a powerful figure in the group but is not a “political decision maker” and trusts Biden’s professional staff, her former press secretary Michael LaRosa said.
Any decision on Biden’s future would likely involve advice from a mix of top advisers, LaRosa said. “I don’t think Jill is going to be comfortable making those kinds of decisions.”
Jill Biden, a community college teacher, is the first presidential spouse to hold down a full-time job while serving in the White House role, which entails an aggressive schedule of official and campaign events.
Trump’s wife Melania rarely campaigns for him.
“The president has a lot of political and policy advisers. That has never been her role,” Elizabeth Alexander, Jill Biden’s communications director, said of her boss.
“While a couple makes decisions together that affect their lives, they absolutely do, but as she’s said more times than I can count, politics is his domain. She supports his career and he supports hers,” she said.
Jill Biden regularly tells the public that it took her some time to decide to marry then-Senator Biden – after five proposals.
“I knew that whatever I chose, it would change my life forever,” Jill Biden said in East Hampton. “Of course, I would no longer be single. But I would become a mother overnight to two young boys, Beau and Hunter. And becoming the wife of a senator would mean a life in the spotlight.”
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons and Howard Goller)
