Jill Biden Calls Out Unrealistic Expectations for Joe

First lady Jill Biden calls out unrealistic expectations she believes have been set for her husband, President Joe Biden, in a new interview.

As the president prepares for an uphill reelection battle against Donald Trump, the first lady is on the cover of Vogue magazine's August issue and is profiled inside. The article, which was published Monday, offers a glimpse into the Biden White House and 2024 campaign and paints a picture of a first lady who stands steadfastly with her husband amid growing concerns from within their party about his age.

Vogue's Maya Singer writes that she saw Jill's "temper spark" only once, when the first lady insisted that the American public wasn't aware of "what Joe's done." The first lady went on to list his first-term achievements, like the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act.

"If they knew all of that—I mean, the bridge is being built in their city and they don't know who did it. 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," she said.

Singer's article said the first lady seemed "bewildered" that people didn't know the president had accomplished these things.

Singer wrote, "She's not wrong, of course, when she goes on to point out that people can't expect her husband to do everything. And he's managed to do quite a bit more than you'd think possible with a Congress that seems perpetually poised to blow itself up. Nor is she wrong when she reminds me that when the Bidens moved into the White House, COVID was still at full blast."

The first lady has continued to stand by her husband in the days following his disturbing debate performance last Thursday. Even as reports have emerged about Democratic panic over his candidacy, his wife has insisted that he "isn't just the right person for the job. He's the only person for the job."

"Anyone can tell you what they want to do, but Joe Biden can tell you what he's done with his judgment, his experience and his relationships with leaders across the globe," she told donors over the weekend.

Asked about the debate, she told Vogue that she and her husband "will not let those 90 minutes define the four years he's been president. We will continue to fight."

It's not only the president who has faced backlash for not stepping aside and letting another candidate take his place as the party's nominee. His wife, who has been described as one of Joe's "closest confidants"—has faced pressure to advise her husband to pull out of the race. The New York Times reported that several Silicon Valley "megadonors" tried to reach her over the weekend in an attempt to persuade her to ask him to end his campaign.

But the Vogue profile indicates that she will do no such thing.

"Every campaign is important, and every campaign is hard. Each campaign is unique. But this one, the urgency is different," she told Singer. "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."

Singer wrote: "There is one last campaign—and FLOTUS is on the march. Rallying supporters. Launching a revolution in women's health research. Listening to the people of America—and asking, this once, that they listen back.

"Because what she's saying is that the message has gotten through. The change is happening. Maybe not as fast as they'd like, and maybe not in quite the ways they'd imagined, but then, that's how things work in a big, fractious democracy."