WASHINGTON – Campaigning for her husband in Florida, Jill Biden I took a break to have some tea.
She was on the second stop of a three-state swing and the reporters traveling with her tried several times to get her to talk to them. They were curious to know what she would say to Democrats who were so shaken by President Joe Biden’s decision poor debate performance that they were asking him to drop his bid for re-election.
Leaving a coffee shop after drinking hibiscus tea with the mayor of Tampa, the first lady paused on the way to her vehicle and turned to face reporters who were firing questions at her.
“Why are you yelling at me? You know me,” she said, adding, “Don’t yell at me. Just talk.”
She left without answering their questions.
The public has gotten to know Jill Biden well over her more than three years as a multi-role first lady. Now she is trying to help her husband save his presidential campaign and is under new scrutiny from critics who see her as a power-hungry wife who is pressuring her elderly husband to run again so she can maintain her White House lifestyle.
Adding to that, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has begun going after the first lady, claiming without evidence at a rally in Florida this week that she and the president’s son, Hunter Biden, are actually the ones running the country.
This week, the president’s wife of 47 years registered a three-state move to promote the Biden administration’s support for the military and is fulfilling a more traditional role as hostess to the nation, welcome to NATO leaders and their spouses for the alliance’s 75th anniversary summit. She and Hunter Biden are known for being two of the people Biden listens to the most and both have encouraged the president to stay in the race.
Weeks before the debate, audiences also saw Jill Biden in her role as family matriarch, sitting behind Hunter in federal court in Delaware as he was tried, and convicted of weapons possession crime.
Elizabeth Alexander, the first lady’s communications director, said Jill Biden’s most important role is as the president’s wife, not as one of his many policy advisers and politicians.
“As much as any husband and wife team make decisions together that impact their lives, they absolutely do, but as she has said more times than I can count, politics is his path,” Alexander wrote in an email. “She is his biggest supporter and defender, because she believes in him and fears for the future of our country if things go the other way. Just as he has always supported her career, she supports his.”
Alexander said that most women, including first ladies, have difficulty being supportive but not so supportive that their motives are questioned, speaking openly but not too loudly, and performing their duties well but without fanfare. or they risk being accused of being too ambitious or aggressive.
“Society has placed all first ladies, including Dr. Biden, in an impossible situation, especially with social media, bots, and today’s right-wing machine feeding narratives and inventing false caricatures at every turn,” Alexander said.
Jill Biden stayed close to her husband as the post-debate drama unfolded, campaigning with him in North Carolina, New York and New Jersey. She interrupted a solo campaign before meeting with him at the White House on the Fourth of July.
She replaced him again on Monday, on a trip through North Carolina, Florida and Georgia that was intended to rally support from veterans and military families but was also part of the Biden team’s broader effort to try to steer the conversation. back to Trump.
She told the crowd she supports Biden decision to stay in the race.
“Despite all the talk about this race, Joe has made it clear he’s in,” she said at all three stops. “That’s the decision he made. And just as he’s always supported my career, I’m in too. I know you are too, or you wouldn’t be here today.”
Jill Biden, as First Lady, is the first to work outside the White House. She is a professor of English and writing at Northern Virginia Community College, where she has taught since 2009.
On Tuesday, the first lady was back at the White House in the role of hostess, welcoming NATO leaders and their spouses to the annual summit. She hosted a brunch for the spouses on Wednesday at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and joined the president in welcoming the couples to a dinner at the White House in the evening.
Even so, Jill Biden took on another role this week: fashion consultant.
At the end of brunch with the NATO spouses, she sent them off with advice for their visit Thursday to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains.
“Please dress comfortably,” she said. “Don’t wear those high heels because you’re going to get into helicopters… so please wear flats, wear sneakers. Just make yourself comfortable.”
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
