Joe Biden is president for just four more days.
Given that, I want to spend a bit of time over these next 96 hours considering his presidency and his legacy. Later today — time willing! — I am going to go line by line through his farewell speech from the Oval Office on Wednesday night.
But right now I think it’s worth considering his spouse, First Lady Jill Biden, and the role she played the 2024 Democratic debacle.
Start with the opening of this “exit interview” piece the Washington Post did with Jill Biden:
The first lady says she’s at peace with this ending. But.
“Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded.”
Why?
“I don’t know. I learned a lot about human nature.”
Meaning ...
“I think that’s all I’m going to say.”
That isn’t all she is going to say, of course. Later, of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was one of the main people pushing Joe Biden out of the race after his disastrous June 27 debate performance, Jill Biden said: “We were friends for 50 years. It was disappointing.”
Before I go any further, let me say this: Joe Biden’s performance in the 2024 race — and the decisions he made about it — are ultimately his. He could have stopped his candidacy at any time. He didn’t — until it was close to too late.
But I also think that Jill Biden was a driving force in three critical decisions Joe Biden made in the race:
To run again at all — after promising to be a “bridge” to a new generation of Democratic leaders
To largely hide from the media and broader scrutiny as a way of avoiding potential slip-ups and gaffes due to his age
To stay in the race for three-plus weeks after the June 27 debate when the writing was very much on the wall that he needed to go.
At every turn, according to credible reporting, she pushed back on the idea that her husband was too old — or too compromised physically or mentally — to run and keep running. She insisted polling about his age was off. She fiercely defended him against charges that he was showing signs of slipping.
Which is not to say all of this is her fault. Again, Joe Biden has agency in this. He could have pulled the plug on his candidacy at any point. But I absolutely do think Jill Biden bears at least some blame for where Democrats ended up.
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