From guiding her meandering husband down stairs to congratulating him for ‘answering all the questions’: How stubborn Jill’s treatment of Joe shows she holds the power in the race… and admits the debate was bad

Despite mounting pressure from Democrats to reconsider his political future following a debate over a car crash, Joe Biden appears to remain firmly in the race, while Jill Biden remains stubbornly by his side.

And her actions over the past 48 hours make it clear that she is the one firmly pulling the strings over her husband’s decision to stay in the race.

Speaking to wealthy donors in New York on Friday night, she made clear she knew how the debate was perceived, but said she had told her husband the campaign would continue.

“So let’s talk about last night’s debate, because I know that’s on your mind.” she said. “As Joe said earlier today, he’s not a young man. And you know, after last night’s debate he said, “You know, Jill, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel great.’ And I said, ‘Look, Joe, we’re not going to let 90 minutes define the four years you’ve been president.'”

The CNN appearance in which Joe Biden rambled through the answers and lost his train of thought caused unprecedented panic in the party.

Top lawmakers and officials immediately considered their options.

But when Biden attended a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, he seemed like a different man. Jill Biden called it a “wonderful” event.

During the debate, he admitted his debate performance was less than ideal, but insisted he was staying in the race, as the crowd of more than 2,000 cheered him on.

His defiant announcement came alongside the only person likely to stand between him and a potentially historic decision to step aside: his wife, Jill.

Even though she knows he had a bad night at the first presidential debate, she stubbornly stands by her husband’s side and fights the fear that he will lose the November election to Donald Trump.

The Bidens know that “he didn’t have the best first debate,” a source close to her told DailyMail.com. “Is he the best person to be president now and for the next four years? 100% yes.’

“She’s been his wife for 47 years; she’s his biggest supporter, his biggest advocate, and his biggest believer.”

President Biden, 81, has blocked the nomination. The only way the party can get another candidate is to voluntarily drop out of the race.

And the only person who can get him to do that is Jill Biden. Only after her blessing did he agree to run for a second term. She is his closest advisor and the person he listens to most.

But Jill Biden is nowhere near concluding that her husband should drop out of the race. She said it herself at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, the day after the debate.

Wearing a dress that repeatedly spelled out the word “vote,” she told the crowd, “We don’t choose our chapter in history, but we can choose who leads us through it.” And right now, with all the dangers the world is facing, there is no one I would rather have in the White House than my husband.”

And in the aftermath of the debate, she praised Joe Biden effusively, even as many Democrats banged their heads over his clumsy debate performance.

“Joe, you did a great job answering every question. You knew all the facts,” she told him at a rally with supporters.

Many called her unaware of the events of that night. What her words revealed, however, was the pressure she is putting on the president. She is the one Joe Biden turns to for reassurance. She is the one who can serve as a balm for his wounded pride.

The question now is what she will do next.

Jill Biden has previously intervened when she felt Joe Biden was not being well served by his advisers. After his first disastrous press conference, she walked into a staff meeting demanding to know who was responsible for the event and why it wasn’t stopped.

At his next press conference, she sat in a chair front and center and took charge.

The question is what she will do now: Will she push for changes on the campaign trail? Will she call for staff layoffs? Will she allow Joe Biden to be seen in public more often? Or will she push the White House to continue using staged events and surrounding him with aides?

The full implications for Biden’s inner sanctum remain to be seen, but Jill Biden will play a leading role in what happens.

She will probably come out of this with more power than ever in the White House. She is the one who sees Joe Biden the most, even in the most personal moments. She is the one who really knows his health and mental state.

She is the one who defended him when his age was questioned.

“I know what you’re thinking, so let’s talk about age in this election,” Jill Biden told a fundraiser in Philadelphia on Monday night. “This election is not about age. Joe and the other guy are about the same age. This election is about wisdom and skill of character.”

She’s also the one who often intervenes at his events — to grab his arm and get him back on track when he stumbles. And that role played out in real time during the debate, when a video went viral of her helping the president down the steps from the stage at the end of the event.

And now that the true extent of Biden’s bungling during last night’s debate has been revealed in real time, Jill Biden’s loyalty is being called into question — not just by Republicans, who have called her “the president’s handler,” but also by Democrats who are Biden supporters.

“I guess I should start by saying, without apology, that I love Joe Biden and Jill,” MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said the morning after the disastrous debate.

He added that it was time to ask whether Biden should remain on the ballot: “If, however, you believe, as I do, and as so many people watching this program do, and who are afraid of how dark a second term of Donald Trump will bring to America, then I think it is critically important that we ask the same questions about this man who I love, who I respect, and whose public service in saving this country from Donald Trump over the last three and a half years I honor and always will.”

Jill Biden gave Joe Biden a hug after the debate ended on Thursday

People who know her say the fallout from the debate will push her even further behind Team Biden.

“Our First Lady is a fighter and a competitor. She and the Biden family have been here before…when his political obituary was being written and he was counting down. The collective response to tonight’s debate will only strengthen their resolve and resolve – they will redouble their efforts. Whether that is good or bad is up for debate. That’s just who they are: they don’t give up. Don’t expect anything to change in this race,” her former press secretary Michael LaRosa wrote on X.

Jill Biden has always been the rock of the Biden family.

She demonstrated this during the toughest week since Beau Biden died in 2015: the week her stepson Hunter was on trial while her husband was on a state visit to France, forcing her to balance her private and public roles.

Hunter Biden’s trial on federal gun charges exposed the family’s darkest secrets: His voice rang through the courtroom as prosecutors used his own audiobook to play scenes from his drug use, his ex-wife talked about the discovery of his drug paraphernalia and his brother’s widow told how he got her addicted to crack cocaine.

Jill Biden was there, accused of wasting taxpayer money on her four flights back and forth across the Atlantic that week for a personal family affair so she could be there for her son while also fulfilling her first lady duties in France.

The White House noted that she loves her son and, like any mother, wants to be there for him. And that she sent him strength from her front row seat.

“I haven’t seen her find strength like she did that week in a remarkably long time. I mean, basically since the period around 2015 when Beau was dying or after he died, that she had to get back up again,” a senior White House official told DailyMail.com of that period.

“There’s steel in her, right? Where she says: let’s just do this.’

But that steel could become hardened if a determination to keep Joe Biden in the White House emerges, purely to confront his critics.

Some describe her motives for wanting to remain in the White House as a game of power and “revenge.”

“She likes power. She wants to hold on. She wants a sense of revenge,” historian David Brinkley told CBS’ Face the Nation in February.

Jill Biden holds Hunter Biden’s hand after he – and his wife Melissa Cohen (right) – leave the courthouse following his guilty verdict

Jill Biden gives Joe Biden a kiss – the couple has been married for 48 years

But the White House notes that the first lady has her own agenda for a second term: expanding pre-K education, increasing funding for community college, restoring abortion rights and making women’s health a greater priority.

And they claim her biggest priority is defeating Donald Trump.

Jill Biden, along with the president, fervently believes that Trump will destroy democracy: “Trump has told us over and over again why he wants the White House. To give himself absolute power. To avoid being held accountable for his criminal acts,” she said in Los Angeles earlier this month. “To destroy the democratic safeguards that stand in his way.”

However, Democrats are now wondering whether Joe Biden can beat Donald Trump.

The former president led Biden in key battleground states ahead of the debate. The fear is that Trump’s polls will rise.

David Axelrod, Obama’s former senior adviser, said Biden’s performance sent shock waves through the party.

“I think there was a sense of shock when he came out at the beginning of the debate, the way his voice sounded, he seemed a little disoriented,” he said on CNN.

It also remains a question of Biden’s legacy. He came into the 2020 election to calm the country after the chaos of Trump’s presidency.

But if he loses in November, history will rewrite its view of him. And from Jill Biden.

That steel in the first lady, her loyalty to her husband of 48 years, could blind her to that.

“First Lady scholars know that every couple thinks about their legacy. The Bidens are no different,” Stacy Cordery, a professor at Iowa State University and expert on first ladies, told DailyMail.com.

‘It took Joe Biden a long time to reach the White House. Even if Jill had the power in their marriage to force him to resign, I don’t believe she would use it – because she loves him too much.”