First Lady Jill Biden scolded White House aides after they allowed her husband, President Joe Biden, to participate in a news conference in which he made a series of gaffes.
“Why didn’t anyone stop that?” the first lady asked, after the president and his aides gathered following a 2022 news conference that lasted more than two hours.
The president has made several factual errors, including falsely referring to a visit to an AstraZeneca factory, misrepresenting the amount of money sent to Ukraine, and misrepresenting the number of Americans vaccinated with COVID-19 -vaccines.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about the special counsel’s report in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House in Washington, DC on February 8, 2024
Jill Biden is fiercely protective of her husband’s time and schedule
New York Times reporter Katie Rogers chronicles the story in her book “American Woman,” out Feb. 27. Details were first shared with Axios.
‘Where were you?’ the first lady asked Biden’s aides after the news conference, including then-White House press secretary Jennifer Psaki. “Where was the person who was going to end the press conference?”
Aides had given the president a note saying it was time to end the news conference, but he continued after receiving criticism from the media for refusing to answer questions from White House reporters.
Reports of the first lady’s frustration with staff first emerged in October 2022, when she expressed her displeasure after the marathon press conference.
The story is another example of the first lady acting as a caretaker for the president, fiercely protective of his time and planned events.
The first lady is reportedly reminding Democrats of her husband’s achievements, his travel schedule and his victory over Donald Trump, while sharing concerns about the president’s age.
In her memoir “Where the Light Enters,” the first lady explained why she “held the grudge” when her husband was more forgiving.
“I’m the one who wants to stomp up the hill to confront the mean boy. I remember every little mistake made against the people I love,” she wrote.
“I can certainly forgive, but I don’t believe in rewarding bad behavior,” she added.
On Thursday, Biden held another rambling press conference in which he insisted that “my memory is fine,” even as he incorrectly referred to the president of Egypt as the president of Mexico.
His comments came after special counsel Robert Hur wrote in a bombastic report that the “older” president could not remember when his son Beau died.
The shocking details are included in Hur’s 388-page report released Thursday on Biden’s “deliberate mishandling” of classified documents.
President Joe Biden kisses first lady Jill Biden before boarding Marine One on January 29, 2021
President Joe Biden pauses as he listens to a question about the Kabul airport bombings that killed at least 12 U.S. service members, from the East Room of the White House, Thursday, August 26, 2021
The report said Biden could not remember when his son Beau died, “not even within a few years.”
‘How on earth does he dare bring that up? Honestly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, ‘It was none of their damn business,'” Biden said of the special counsel.
Biden then answered a question about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
In doing so, he botched the identification of a world leader by calling Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
He said: “I think, as you know, the President of Mexico, El-Sisi, initially did not want to open the gate to let in humanitarian materials. I spoke to him. I convinced him to open the gate.”
The confusion with El-Sisi might not have been noticed much in a week. Many politicians occasionally fudge names while speaking publicly, as the White House noted Thursday.