We've often talked about Jill Biden acting as something of a "handler" to Joe Biden.
Now there's a new report out on just how much she's trying to control things behind the scenes and an incident where she freaked out not just at aides but at Joe for not stopping a press conference that in her opinion went on too long and got him into trouble.
This report stems from a new book about to come out "American Woman" — a book about modern first ladies by the N.Y. Times' Katie Rogers. It describes the freak out by Jill Biden after a disastrous Jan. 19, 2022 press conference. We've reported on it in the past but now there's more detail. Biden made several gaffes and factual errors. Perhaps the worst of them was the "minor incursion" gaffe that we reported on, where Biden suggested that a minor incursion by Russia into Ukraine wouldn't be a big problem. Then, the next month Russia invaded Ukraine, in the wake of Biden's ridiculously weak comment.
Kyiv Is 'Stunned' That Biden Greenlighted 'Minor Incursion' Into Ukraine
Biden and the top aides were gathered in the Treaty Room, the president's study in the executive residence, after the press conference. Then Jill appeared at the door.
"She had watched the news conference, and the look on her face told everyone in the room — from the president on down — that they had some explaining to do."
Why didn't anyone stop that?" she demanded. [....]
"Everyone stayed silent, looking at one another, and then at her, and back to one another. That included the most powerful man in the world. Her husband essentially played along, not offering an answer, even though aides had slipped him a card suggesting he end the press conference.""Where were you guys?" the first lady asked the aides. "Where was the person who was going to end the press conference?"
Rogers said this showed how she was her husband's "fiercest protector."
That isn't the first thought that I would have there. The first thought would be what does it say when she has to control him and dictate so much to the aides to protect him because he isn't capable of dealing with the situation on his own? It's ridiculous that she would talk to the alleged leader of the free world that way.
Also, what does it say about him that he's cowering there in silence? But we know why -- because his brain is mush.
What she should be doing is telling him to retire, to enjoy the time with the grandkids rather than continuing to embarrass himself and put the country in danger. And we see seven from that press conference how his problems can potentially affect the world in a very bad way.
Rogers then went on to write how it was Jill's "dislike of Trump" that was the "driving reason" Joe ran and is running again despite how old he is.
"The amount of work Joe takes home with him from the Oval Office is daunting — he brings stacks of briefing books to the residence each evening — and she knows how much the job is draining him."
I don't know about you but that makes me disturbed at what she's putting him through. It's elder abuse. She wants the aides to cover him, but she's not "covering him" or even looking out for his best interests if this is true.
Meanwhile, his being there is doing devastating harm to our nation, which, I might add, would not have happened under Trump.
Another report noted Jill Biden's hovering at one of the few times Joe Biden has a "solo" press conference.
Biden has only held three solo White House press conferences since taking office in January 2021. At the most recent, in November 2022, Jill arrived at the last minute and was seated at the very front of the State Dining Room by a beefy aide — who positioned her so that journalists could not see whether the first lady was urging her husband at any point to make a hasty retreat.
The report also noted more on how the White House is trying to limit access to Biden.
The White House press office has also played its part, introducing a Byzantine prescreening process to select which reporters are allowed to attend large indoor events that were open to all under past administrations — leading to muttering that those most aligned with the administration were most likely to be extended invitations.
Prescreening was eased following a protest by members of the press corps in the summer of 2022, but returned ahead of Biden’s last-minute response to Hur’s report Thursday night. Digital RSVP forms only went out a few minutes before the hastily scheduled event in the White House Diplomatic Reception Room and some reporters on the executive mansion’s campus were denied access to the relatively small venue.
But as we've seen there's only so much you can do... unless they completely hid him.
Even in the response to the Hur report the point of which was to tell everyone he was fine, he botched that by seeming like an angry old man confronted by the truth, and he called the Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Ell-Sisi the president of Mexico.
They're going down like the Titanic and Jill is rearranging the deck chairs.