First lady Jill Biden expressed frustration during a private Democratic fundraising event over the weekend that President Biden has been unable to accomplish his agenda because of a host of unforeseen events.
Speaking to a few dozen attendees of a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at a private home in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Mrs. Biden cited the war in Ukraine, gun violence and the Supreme Court as some of the hindrances her husband has faced.
“He had so many hopes and plans for things he wanted to do, but every time you turned around, he had to address the problems of the moment,” Mrs. Biden said, according to CNN. “He’s just had so many things thrown his way. Who would have ever thought about what happened [with the Supreme Court overturning] Roe v. Wade? Well, maybe we saw it coming, but still, we didn’t believe it. The gun violence in this country is absolutely appalling. We didn’t see the war in Ukraine coming.”
Mr. Biden has seen his poll numbers diminish in response to issues at home and abroad that she argued have prevented him from seeing more achievements, including the bungled U.S. military evacuation of Afghanistan, 40-year-high inflation and record prices at the pump, mass shootings and Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The latest setback to Mr. Biden’s agenda came last week, when Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat, said he would not support new spending on climate and energy provisions, dealing a major blow to the president’s push for more green policies to combat climate change.
Recent polling shows that voters, including many Democrats, do not support Mr. Biden for a second term.
Mrs. Biden also expressed frustration with her own progress as first lady.
“I was saying to myself, ‘OK, I was second lady. I worked on community colleges. I worked on military families. I’ve worked on cancer.’ They were supposed to be my areas of focus,” she said, according to CNN. “But then when we got [in the White House] I had to be, with all that was happening, the first lady of the moment.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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