Although I have admired Jill Biden for many years, I sadly agree with you about her complicity in supporting Biden’s decision to run for a second term. I honestly thought and hoped and expected she would talk him out of it at their family Christmas gathering in 2023. But it turns out she was pushing in the opposite direction. It is understandable that she would want to support Joe and his accomplishments while being ridiculed constantly by Trump and Republicans. But her love and loyalty overcame reason. I hope neither she nor Joe hang on to bitterness to Pelosi or others who really did love Joe too but made the hard choice of trying to do what was best for the country albeit too late. Biden is a good patriotic man who was a solid president in demanding times. Jill should have helped him leave earlier with dignity and a better chance for the Democrats to defeat Trump. It is a sad story of misplaced loyalty.
Hmm ... I think her motivation is keeping Joe alive, not being First Lady. I really think she fears that Joe's life is over once he leaves office because his life has been all about politics and without that, he's got nothing else.
I agree. Everything I've heard, read, and can infer leads me to believe Jill bears a good chunk of the blame of Joe's errant decision-making. In the end, the buck stopped with Joe, but she held a lot of sway with his choices throughout.
Bottom line -- it was foolish for him to run again for many reasons, but his declining mental state was top of that list. And shame on the administration from keeping that from the public. The Dems lost a lot of credibility at a time when trust was already running thin, and I'm not sure they'll ever fully recover.
I have to image its really hard to walk out of the White House either by your choice or the voters choice. However, my fault with Biden is he promised to be a bridge and then failed when the country needed him to be that bridge. I believe history will be much kinder to Joe than current voters and the media. But failing to walk away and open the field with a strong lineup of younger and qualified leaders behind him was a critical error.
I've never been president, but I believe that one of the hardest and most important lessons in getting older is knowing when to let go and pass the torch. That doesn't necessarily mean doing nothing, but it does mean moving on.
I totally agree with Chris on this one. I've told anyone who would listen for the last six months that I blame it all on Jill, though that's an exaggeration. It's the prime responsibility of a presidential spouse to care about the president's legacy. What will their great-grandchildren read about Joe after he and Jill are long gone? Joe Biden's legacy would have been much more exalted if he had chosen to be a one-term, transitional president.
Chris makes a key point. Anyone who is married knows that their spouse is the first to recognize their partner's decline. My wife knows when I get out of the chair with more difficult difficulty and doesn't hesitate to mention it. So, it is not credible that Jill did not recognize the decline in Joe’s communicative abilities. We may adjust to changes in the people we love, but we’re not deluded into thinking the changes are not real. Even if Jill knew that his communication issues were not cognitive, she surely understood that they would be perceived that way. She failed Joe and the nation.
This is worth discussing because Trump's return could have been prevented, and now we have to deal with the return of that odious fellow.
I'm a Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama, Biden, Harris voting Democrat so it's kinda clear how I view any Democratic president. But I felt and feel betrayed by Joe Biden. Throughout the 2020 campaign he clearly and unmistakably said he would be a transitional president, a bridge to the new generation of leaders. What he did not tell us was that would all happen after 2028. Had he pulled an LBJ in mid to late 2022, made the transition, built the bridge, taken credit for the good he had accomplished, he would today be regarded in a totally different light. The road not taken. Shame on you, Joe.
Joe entered the Oval Office with all those expectations, but no previous president had ever been given the task he had before him. He knew we had to rebound from COVID- he could handle that -HE DID. He knew TRUMP leaving w/the highest debt ceiling EVER-he could handle that-HE DID. He knew the border was a catastrophe, MANY BEFORE HIM HAD PASSED IT ON…as TRUMP & all the lost kids from TRUMPS BORDER TERROR-yes, TRUMP. THEN THE INSURRECTION, who would have thought❓❗️TRUMPS HIDEOUS WARNING that HE, TRUMP, WILL DO ANYTHING TO GET BACK IN-HE HAS.
So all your disdain for what u consider Joe’s failures, is not fair. Joe beat the old devil TRUMP, left a growing economy that other post-COVID countries are still striving for❗️TRUMP WILL TEAR IT APART, this has begun. THE OILYS WANT ALL OUR PIECES. BIDEN had the devil on his tail wanting back in… SO when we think BIDEN FAILED… 🇺🇸 needs to look at the real failure-THEMSELVES and ask why we didn’t fight off this MAGA DEVIL REGIME, instead of pointing finger at JOE, for fighting mostly alone, for us. THANK YOU JOE, I will fight the “good fight” , as you have always tried to do for 🇺🇸. THE MAGA DEVIL REGIME ONLY FUELS MY SAILS❗️🇺🇸💙
I am totally disgusted! Leave Jill Biden alone! She loves her husband naturally she would defend him! I can’t believe you would attack her like this! Unbelievable!
Don't forget Hunter was reported to have been also a big supporter of keeping his dad in the race. At the end of the day, why waste time kicking the can down the road? Time to get with the task of saving our democracy.
It is possible, but we have no evidence of that. Chis is basing his whole opinion on an assumption.
Being supportive of his decision is a lot different than being involved in his making the decision. He also had many advisors, his cabinet, a campaign infrastructure, the whole democratic party, all who may have been involved in his decision making ahead of his spouse.
All the evidence we have so far is that she supported his decision, nothing about her encouraging him to run.
I think her body language sitting next to VP Harris at the Carter funeral tells us all we need to know. Her husband demonstrated much more honor than she. This wasn't about him, but about the country. She's lost my respect.
Just to clarify. Running for reelction is a political decision and a political calculation. I am pretty sure the President did not rely on Jill for making his political decisions.
If she wanted to she may have been able to stop it, or maybe not. We just do not have any evidence at this time that shows that the political decision was encouraged or influenced by Jill Biden.
Her body language told us that she did actually influence Joe's decision to run for reelection?
We know she supported his decision to run for reelection, but at this point we have no evidence that she played a major part in influencing his decision to run again.
So, you think the President of the USA based his political strategy on advice, or pressure, from his wife who has zero political experience? And while he is surrounded by a team of political advisors, and the entire democratic party, whose job it is, and who are experienced in this, to give advice on just this type of decision? Oh, come on.
I said that there is no evidence at this time that Jill Biden influenced or encouraged him to run again.
And as far as"imparimem" there is no evidence of anything besides the slowing caused by age, and no evidence that he is mentally impaired or unable to do the job. But, that obvious age related slowing should have even a clue thar trying for four more years was a stretch, but, from what I understand, this type of age related slowing can progress suddenly and may not have been an issue a year ago. There is a lot we don't know at this time, and I look forward to learning more facts. Meantime I would not assume that Jill Biden was involved in any political decisions, or political calculations, as there has never been any reporting of her taking on that type of roll in President Bidens carrer, or at the White House.
Running for reelection is a political decision and a political calculation. I am pretty sure President Biden relies on his political advisors, and fellow elected democratic officials, for political decisions and calculations.
Sure, Jill Biden might have been able to reverse his decision to run again if she had wanted to, or maybe not. We just do not have any evidence at this time that it was her opinions that were what influenced or encouraged the President to run for reelection.
I don't fault Chris for writing about Jill, and I agree with him. As far as his critics are concerned, I agree with them in that this subject should be closed from now on.
She’s the 2024 version of Edith Bolling Wilson. People near power don’t want it to go away. For all the high-minded talk, people act in their self interest.
Unfortunately, by doing the interview, Jill Biden opened herself up to criticism. As things unfolded last year, I too was very critical of her. Over time, my opinion has softened. I think what we witnessed was a devoted wife ferociously protecting the PERSON she knew, loved and admired, not Joe-as-candidate. (If we could all be so lucky to have someone like Jill on our side.)
I don't thnik this is worth rehashing really. We need to look forward, not backward. We can always do the 'if only' thoughts, but where does that really get us?
I agree that we do need to look forward, but those who ignore history are often doomed to repeat it. The Dems screwed up in a lot of ways. It's worth looking back on the how and why. (Though, in the end, even if Joe declined a second term and we had a stronger candidate, I think the headwinds were too much for any Dem to win in 2024.)
It’s time to move on. I’m not interested in who did what or who didn’t do what. The Democrats failed as a party to get someone elected. There are plenty of things I am interested in … the Israel-Hamas agreement, the hearings on the nominees, the fires in California… to name a few. Whether or not Jill played a role in President Biden’s decision is not important to me.
Although I have admired Jill Biden for many years, I sadly agree with you about her complicity in supporting Biden’s decision to run for a second term. I honestly thought and hoped and expected she would talk him out of it at their family Christmas gathering in 2023. But it turns out she was pushing in the opposite direction. It is understandable that she would want to support Joe and his accomplishments while being ridiculed constantly by Trump and Republicans. But her love and loyalty overcame reason. I hope neither she nor Joe hang on to bitterness to Pelosi or others who really did love Joe too but made the hard choice of trying to do what was best for the country albeit too late. Biden is a good patriotic man who was a solid president in demanding times. Jill should have helped him leave earlier with dignity and a better chance for the Democrats to defeat Trump. It is a sad story of misplaced loyalty.
Well said.
Another motivator for her was that she liked being First Lady and didn't want to give that up.
Hmm ... I think her motivation is keeping Joe alive, not being First Lady. I really think she fears that Joe's life is over once he leaves office because his life has been all about politics and without that, he's got nothing else.
No evidence that she would put our country in peril because she liked being FLOTUS.
She HAD to know her husband wasn't up to campaigning for/being president until he was 86!!! It was a terrible act of selfishness!
Yes, totally agree.
I agree. Everything I've heard, read, and can infer leads me to believe Jill bears a good chunk of the blame of Joe's errant decision-making. In the end, the buck stopped with Joe, but she held a lot of sway with his choices throughout.
Bottom line -- it was foolish for him to run again for many reasons, but his declining mental state was top of that list. And shame on the administration from keeping that from the public. The Dems lost a lot of credibility at a time when trust was already running thin, and I'm not sure they'll ever fully recover.
I have to image its really hard to walk out of the White House either by your choice or the voters choice. However, my fault with Biden is he promised to be a bridge and then failed when the country needed him to be that bridge. I believe history will be much kinder to Joe than current voters and the media. But failing to walk away and open the field with a strong lineup of younger and qualified leaders behind him was a critical error.
I've never been president, but I believe that one of the hardest and most important lessons in getting older is knowing when to let go and pass the torch. That doesn't necessarily mean doing nothing, but it does mean moving on.
I totally agree with Chris on this one. I've told anyone who would listen for the last six months that I blame it all on Jill, though that's an exaggeration. It's the prime responsibility of a presidential spouse to care about the president's legacy. What will their great-grandchildren read about Joe after he and Jill are long gone? Joe Biden's legacy would have been much more exalted if he had chosen to be a one-term, transitional president.
Chris makes a key point. Anyone who is married knows that their spouse is the first to recognize their partner's decline. My wife knows when I get out of the chair with more difficult difficulty and doesn't hesitate to mention it. So, it is not credible that Jill did not recognize the decline in Joe’s communicative abilities. We may adjust to changes in the people we love, but we’re not deluded into thinking the changes are not real. Even if Jill knew that his communication issues were not cognitive, she surely understood that they would be perceived that way. She failed Joe and the nation.
This is worth discussing because Trump's return could have been prevented, and now we have to deal with the return of that odious fellow.
Agree 100%
I'm a Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama, Biden, Harris voting Democrat so it's kinda clear how I view any Democratic president. But I felt and feel betrayed by Joe Biden. Throughout the 2020 campaign he clearly and unmistakably said he would be a transitional president, a bridge to the new generation of leaders. What he did not tell us was that would all happen after 2028. Had he pulled an LBJ in mid to late 2022, made the transition, built the bridge, taken credit for the good he had accomplished, he would today be regarded in a totally different light. The road not taken. Shame on you, Joe.
Joe entered the Oval Office with all those expectations, but no previous president had ever been given the task he had before him. He knew we had to rebound from COVID- he could handle that -HE DID. He knew TRUMP leaving w/the highest debt ceiling EVER-he could handle that-HE DID. He knew the border was a catastrophe, MANY BEFORE HIM HAD PASSED IT ON…as TRUMP & all the lost kids from TRUMPS BORDER TERROR-yes, TRUMP. THEN THE INSURRECTION, who would have thought❓❗️TRUMPS HIDEOUS WARNING that HE, TRUMP, WILL DO ANYTHING TO GET BACK IN-HE HAS.
So all your disdain for what u consider Joe’s failures, is not fair. Joe beat the old devil TRUMP, left a growing economy that other post-COVID countries are still striving for❗️TRUMP WILL TEAR IT APART, this has begun. THE OILYS WANT ALL OUR PIECES. BIDEN had the devil on his tail wanting back in… SO when we think BIDEN FAILED… 🇺🇸 needs to look at the real failure-THEMSELVES and ask why we didn’t fight off this MAGA DEVIL REGIME, instead of pointing finger at JOE, for fighting mostly alone, for us. THANK YOU JOE, I will fight the “good fight” , as you have always tried to do for 🇺🇸. THE MAGA DEVIL REGIME ONLY FUELS MY SAILS❗️🇺🇸💙
Yes he did and I believed him
I am totally disgusted! Leave Jill Biden alone! She loves her husband naturally she would defend him! I can’t believe you would attack her like this! Unbelievable!
I think it's less of an attack and more of an observation (and a fair one at that). And getting Chris' perspective is why most of us are here.
It’s very believable. She let him wander around and babble on and continue as an impaired president.
You don't know that.
So he wasn’t going around babbling? Or she didn’t know he was babbling? Or she knew he was babbling and she tried to get him to quit the presidency?
Chris is absolutely right. She was her usual disgusting self on The View!
You are so off base. Nancy Reagan was a defacto President.Jill was a supportive spouse.
She was. She was awesome for her husband... not so much for the country.
Don't forget Hunter was reported to have been also a big supporter of keeping his dad in the race. At the end of the day, why waste time kicking the can down the road? Time to get with the task of saving our democracy.
Spot on. Jill refused to read the signs or speak up to protect her husband’s legacy.
Really??? With the news day yesterday,, THIS is what you decided to talk about this morning?
Sorry you don't like it. I do my best to talk about what i find interesting.
Keep it up. That’s why we’re here. You have sources & knowledge that the rest of us do not. Appreciate the work.
Your brief, off-the-top-of-your-head video commentaries are habit-forming for a political junkie.
Sans any evidence that Jill Biden had any influence at all on any of Presidents Bidens decisions about this.
What? You don't think Jill was involved in Joe's decision to run for a second term?
It is possible, but we have no evidence of that. Chis is basing his whole opinion on an assumption.
Being supportive of his decision is a lot different than being involved in his making the decision. He also had many advisors, his cabinet, a campaign infrastructure, the whole democratic party, all who may have been involved in his decision making ahead of his spouse.
All the evidence we have so far is that she supported his decision, nothing about her encouraging him to run.
I think her body language sitting next to VP Harris at the Carter funeral tells us all we need to know. Her husband demonstrated much more honor than she. This wasn't about him, but about the country. She's lost my respect.
Just to clarify. Running for reelction is a political decision and a political calculation. I am pretty sure the President did not rely on Jill for making his political decisions.
If she wanted to she may have been able to stop it, or maybe not. We just do not have any evidence at this time that shows that the political decision was encouraged or influenced by Jill Biden.
Her body language told us that she did actually influence Joe's decision to run for reelection?
We know she supported his decision to run for reelection, but at this point we have no evidence that she played a major part in influencing his decision to run again.
Oh come on.
So, you think the President of the USA based his political strategy on advice, or pressure, from his wife who has zero political experience? And while he is surrounded by a team of political advisors, and the entire democratic party, whose job it is, and who are experienced in this, to give advice on just this type of decision? Oh, come on.
You think these people surrounding him particularly his wife were unaware of his impairment? Holy shit.
That is not what I said.
I said that there is no evidence at this time that Jill Biden influenced or encouraged him to run again.
And as far as"imparimem" there is no evidence of anything besides the slowing caused by age, and no evidence that he is mentally impaired or unable to do the job. But, that obvious age related slowing should have even a clue thar trying for four more years was a stretch, but, from what I understand, this type of age related slowing can progress suddenly and may not have been an issue a year ago. There is a lot we don't know at this time, and I look forward to learning more facts. Meantime I would not assume that Jill Biden was involved in any political decisions, or political calculations, as there has never been any reporting of her taking on that type of roll in President Bidens carrer, or at the White House.
And let me clarify my comment.
Running for reelection is a political decision and a political calculation. I am pretty sure President Biden relies on his political advisors, and fellow elected democratic officials, for political decisions and calculations.
Sure, Jill Biden might have been able to reverse his decision to run again if she had wanted to, or maybe not. We just do not have any evidence at this time that it was her opinions that were what influenced or encouraged the President to run for reelection.
Thanks for the response,Chris! Agree that First Ladies wield power, I just think there were more meaningful and interesting stories yesterday.
Give him a chance. It's still early. As we readers of Chris know, he's a prolific writer. He might come out with a piece on Israel later today.
I don't fault Chris for writing about Jill, and I agree with him. As far as his critics are concerned, I agree with them in that this subject should be closed from now on.
She’s the 2024 version of Edith Bolling Wilson. People near power don’t want it to go away. For all the high-minded talk, people act in their self interest.
No, no, and no.
Unfortunately, by doing the interview, Jill Biden opened herself up to criticism. As things unfolded last year, I too was very critical of her. Over time, my opinion has softened. I think what we witnessed was a devoted wife ferociously protecting the PERSON she knew, loved and admired, not Joe-as-candidate. (If we could all be so lucky to have someone like Jill on our side.)
Loving him as a non-candidate would have been better demonstrated by encouraging him to step aside. She did him - and the country- no favors.
I don't thnik this is worth rehashing really. We need to look forward, not backward. We can always do the 'if only' thoughts, but where does that really get us?
I agree that we do need to look forward, but those who ignore history are often doomed to repeat it. The Dems screwed up in a lot of ways. It's worth looking back on the how and why. (Though, in the end, even if Joe declined a second term and we had a stronger candidate, I think the headwinds were too much for any Dem to win in 2024.)
It’s time to move on. I’m not interested in who did what or who didn’t do what. The Democrats failed as a party to get someone elected. There are plenty of things I am interested in … the Israel-Hamas agreement, the hearings on the nominees, the fires in California… to name a few. Whether or not Jill played a role in President Biden’s decision is not important to me.
Totally agree, the wife has the most influence. At least that’s how it is in my house! Hehe