It’s not that former First Lady Jill Biden wrote a book—that’s common—it’s that she’s lying about many things. Who would’ve thought that, right? It was the most obvious news story during those four painful years when America was directionless under Joe Biden, who was battling cancer and struggling with mental lapses. We all knew, but Democrats and the media defended the man until Donald Trump exposed him during the June debate on CNN. He was removed from the ticket the following month.
Some former Biden aides are enraged over this book, adding that perhaps the couple should have given the party more time to move on from their charade. Many noted that the main narrative in the book is that everyone is to blame for the 2024 loss, except themselves. And, sadly, that was missing from the poor, incomplete 2024 DNC autopsy: Biden’s health and advanced age aren’t mentioned even once.
That doesn’t mean they’re blameless. Also, it feeds into the idea that they still genuinely believe they could have beaten Trump if Joe had remained— that’s just delusional (via Axios):
Most Democratic Party leaders don't want to talk about Joe Biden's presidency, but the Bidens are making that difficult. Both are writing books and the former president plans to make campaign stops ahead of the November midterms.
State of play: Jill Biden's book opens up a wound for many Democrats who believe the Bidens damaged their credibility with voters by insisting Joe Biden was fit enough to run for reelection in 2024 when he wasn't, and by pushing the party to publicly defend his fitness.
Many Democrats feel the Bidens have yet to explain themselves, and that Jill Biden's new book is part of a larger pattern of looking for excuses and other people to blame.
What they're saying: Several Biden aides — including some of the most loyal ones — are fuming about the former first lady's reemergence.
One former Biden official said: "I just wish they would give some more time and space and let people move on. It all feels so disingenuous."
Another said: "The throughline between her book and [Kamala] Harris' is that they blame everyone but themselves for the loss."
A former senior Biden official added: "President Biden actually has a legacy that is impactful and should be celebrated at some point — getting us through the pandemic and passing life-changing bills. Why does he keep stepping on it himself?"
A former Biden campaign aide said: "It's just so selfish. The Bidens preached selflessness and service above all — and every decision they've made since he decided to run for reelection has been about themselves. It's also ironic — the only people undermining President Biden's legacy are the people closest to him."
Ex-Obama aides Tommy Vietor and Jon Favreau criticized the Bidens, accusing them of lying about the debate fiasco and then gaslighting everyone into thinking they were overreacting. No, sir, only some people were gaslit—we saw this as the moment Joe Biden’s presidency totally unraveled. But, yes, they did lie about it (via RealClearPolitics):
TOMMY VIETOR, 'POD SAVE AMERICA' CO-HOST: Yes, it is profoundly frustrated. I'm also very triggered this morning by another totally different report. I don't know if you've seen the reports about Jill Biden's book.
JON FAVREAU, 'POD SAVE AMERICA' CO-HOST: Yeah, you can bet that I was triggered as well.
VIETOR: Former first lady, for those that don't know, wrote a book. Apparently, the point of this book is to dispel this idea that she was part of a cover-up of Joe Biden's broader health problems or cognitive decline. Not sure that's-
FAVREAU: Yeah, basically what she says is, no, no, no, I was just part of the coverup about the debate performance.
VIETOR: Yeah, so she talks about her candid reactions to the 2024 June Trump-Biden debate. Well, this is from this, I think they gave the exclusive to the Atlantic or the Atlantic got the book. First lady Jill Biden wondered if her husband had unknowingly ingested drugs or was having a medical episode on live television.
Quote, "Is he short-circuiting?" Jill Biden thought. "Is this a stroke?" That's another quote.
"I felt like we were watching an AI hologram of the man we knew and the hologram was glitching. Has he been drugged?"
So despite thinking your husband had a stroke-
FAVREAU: Great job, Joe, you answered all the questions.
VIETOR: They went to a rally, they went to Waffle House. Like you didn't wanna take him to a doctor if he thought he had a stroke?
FAVREAU: People, I tweeted about this yesterday, we've both been mad together about this. And a lot of people are like, let it go, who cares, it's in the past.
Zaid Jilani actually captured how I feel about this in a tweet. He was like, to me, it's an underrated factor in how distrusted Democrats are that they systematically lied about Biden's condition and in some cases still are. I totally agree with this. I totally-
VIETOR: I hear it all the time.
FAVREAU: I totally disagree with people who are like, no one's gonna care about Biden in 2028. Everyone's putting into the past most Democratic primary voters like Joe Biden. No, I think most Democratic primary voters think that Joe Biden accomplished some great things as president and appreciate that he beat Donald Trump in 2020.
I don't think they appreciated being f*cking lied to by Joe Biden, Jill Biden and their entire f*cking campaign who didn't just lie about the debate performance but gaslighted everyone and told us we were all overreacting, bedwetters, that their polls were fine, that the f*cking debate was fine. And now Joe Biden's like, oh yeah, we were lying the whole time.
It won’t impact the midterms, but it will create drama within the Left for a bit. Enjoy it.
