Vogue’s latest cover girl, First Lady Jill Biden, told the magazine in a sprawling profile that she and President Joe Biden “will not let those 90 minutes” spent on the presidential debate stage last week “define the four years he’s been president. We will continue to fight.”
After a disastrous debate performance against former president Donald Trump last week — one that caused Democratic Party insiders and Biden allies in the media to call for his replacement atop the 2024 ticket — the president’s wife has taken on a heightened stature as the individual with perhaps the most influence over the president’s course of action.
Speaking as the president’s “closest confidant and advocate,” Vogue wrote, Jill did not make any firm pronouncements about the 2024 ticket but did tell the magazine that her husband “will always do what’s best for the country.”
Jill Biden is “the only person who has ultimate influence with him,” a person close to the Biden family told NBC News, and “if she decides there should be a change of course, there will be a change of course.”
The Biden family spent the weekend at Camp David, where it is believed the president discussed future plans with his family, and from where Jill phoned Vogue to offer comment on the debate. Although Jill didn’t discuss the wide-ranging concerns about her husband’s age and mental fitness with Vogue, she did defend to the magazine his campaign.
“Every campaign is important, and every campaign is hard,” she told Vogue. “Each campaign is unique. But this one, the urgency is different. We know what’s at stake. Joe is asking the American people to come together to draw a line in the sand against all this vitriol.”
“If people knew what Joe’s done — with the recovery act, and infrastructure, and CHIPS, if they knew all of that — I mean, the bridge is being built in their city and they don’t know who did it,” she continued. “They don’t know who’s getting the lead out of their water. They don’t know who’s stopping the pipeline going through the parklands. They don’t know. That’s why I’m trying to be out there. Why we’re all trying. To say, ‘This is what we’ve achieved, and this is how it affects your life.'”
From advising her husband’s reelection campaign to influencing his outlook on policy, Jill is thought to be a driving force behind Joe’s political decisions.
“I tell him what I’m seeing, what I’m hearing — and he gets it,” she said. “And this is where the magic happens.”
After the debate on Thursday night, the first lady gently guided the president off the debate stage. Appearing with him on-stage at a post-debate rally moments later, she gushed over his performance.
“Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question, you knew all the facts!” she said.