First lady Jill Biden has taken a leading role in propping up President Biden, inviting comparisons to first lady Edith Wilson who took the reins at the White House a century ago when President Woodrow Wilson was incapacitated by a stroke halfway through his second term.
Mrs. Biden, 73, has stepped more into the limelight and at the same time appeared more and more as a caretaker for her increasingly frail husband — leading him around at his public appearances and introducing and cheering him on at campaign events and closed-door appearances with donors.
She told a prominent group of wealthy Democratic donors shortly after her husband’s disastrous debate appearance last week that Mr. Biden, 81, “isn’t just the right person for the job. He’s the only person for the job.”
At the same time, Mrs. Biden has been seen in leaked video footage leading a shuffling, unsteady Mr. Biden off the stage following the debate and delivering cringeworthy, baffling praise of his performance at a watch party a short time later. Insiders, according to reports, say she’s the one who will decide whether Mr. Biden stays in the race or steps aside as the president grapples with cognitive problems from an aging mind and body that have become evident to voters.
Another report claimed Mrs. Biden and other close family members formed a protective circle around Mr. Biden, pushing away those who wanted to talk about replacing him on the ticket. They blame his campaign staff for his poor debate performance.
The dynamic has raised questions about how significant a role Mrs. Biden is playing in helping the president govern and it has drawn comparisons to Edith Wilson, who helped conceal from the public that her husband, President Woodrow Wilson, was incapacitated following a stroke in October 1919.
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“We don’t know the role Jill Biden’s been playing behind the scenes in the Biden administration, or what decisions she’s been making, but it’s clear, she has been making a number of decisions,” said Michigan pollster Steve Mitchell.
Mrs. Biden could “have a stronger hand on the wheel than Mrs. Wilson did a century ago,” he said.
Mrs. Biden appeared on the cover of Vogue, wearing a $5,000 Ralph Lauren suit, just days after Mr. Biden’s floundering debate performance and amid anonymous claims from within the administration she’s practically running the show.
She pledged in the article that she and Mr. Biden would “continue to fight” and wouldn’t allow the 90-minute debate to “define the four years he’s been president.”
Mrs. Biden’s social media timeline is filled with pictures highlighting her campaign appearances and videos praising her husband.
Meanwhile, a new report from Axios based on anonymous White House staffers revealed that Mr. Biden can’t function for more than six hours a day, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Mrs. Biden is filling the void. She announced plans to “head out on the road” this summer to talk to voters about “all the great work Joe Biden is doing,” and said she’ll be posting “a lot more going forward.”
Mrs. Biden, who has a doctor of education degree and continues to teach at a community college, appeared in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday, holding a public roundtable discussion with educators in Lehigh Valley. She praised her husband’s education initiatives.
“Teaching isn’t just what I do. It’s who I am. And Joe understands this and he knows that the key to our tomorrow rests in our classrooms in making sure that our students are ready for the jobs of the future,” Mrs. Biden said.
Conservatives, meanwhile, have started to compare Mrs. Biden to William Shakespeare’s ruthless Lady Macbeth, accusing her of forcing Mr. Biden to keep running.
Mrs. Biden, conservative talk show host Ben Shapiro said, “is insisting her dementia-ridden husband stay in the race. And the Democrats have no choice but to go along with it.”
White House aides deny that the president is unable to do his job.
Jim Manley, a longtime Democratic aide who worked alongside Mr. Biden for years in the Senate, defended Mrs. Biden by saying it’s not unusual for first ladies to play a prominent role in advising presidents.
Mrs. Biden, he said, “has always been his most important adviser” and nothing has changed in recent weeks. But he warned if reports are true that Biden family members are blaming campaign staff for Mr. Biden’s poor performance at the debate, “that’s a problem.”
Ohio University professor Katherine Jellison said Mrs. Biden has become a sudden lightning rod for the president’s critics and believes those critics are exaggerating how much power she holds at the moment.
But she also compared Mrs. Biden to both Edith Wilson and Eleanor Roosevelt, who helped her husband Franklin Roosevelt win a fourth term in 1944 despite his deteriorating health that led to his death a few months later.
“Mrs. Roosevelt and Mrs. Wilson — like Dr. Biden now — faced criticism for their actions. A key difference is that in the current world of 24/7 news reporting and communication, Jill Biden is receiving that scrutiny and criticism in real time,” Ms. Jellison said. “Mrs. Roosevelt and Mrs. Wilson received much of their criticism after President Roosevelt had died in office and after President Wilson had completed his term.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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