First Lady Jill Biden said “it was disappointing” when a long-time friend asked her husband to step out of the 2024 presidential race in an interview with the Washington Post published on Jan. 15.
“Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded,” Jill Biden said, describing the waning phase of her husband’s presidency. “I learned a lot about human nature.”
Pelosi and the Bidens have known each other for decades, and she and the president have both risen to the heights of American politics over the past 20 years. Following Biden’s heavily scrutinized debate performance against Trump in June 2024, Pelosi was one of many political leaders in the Democratic Party calling for the president to drop out of the race.
When Pelosi appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” last July, she said it would be up to Biden “to decide if he is going to run,” after he had already vowed to stay in the race until the end.
“We were friends for 50 years,” Jill Biden said about Pelosi. “It was disappointing.”
The Epoch Times contacted Pelosi’s office for comment.
The calls for President Biden’s withdrawal led to a cataclysmic shift at the top of the Democratic ticket last year, resulting in Harris being endorsed by the president and later named the party’s nominee. Reportedly, in 2020, Jill Biden was at first reluctant for her husband to choose Harris as his running mate after the then-senator from California had attacked Biden’s record during a Democratic presidential debate in 2019.
According to the first lady’s spokesperson, Jill Biden had moved on from that debate by the time her husband picked Harris, describing the two women as having a “warm, loving relationship.”
Jill Biden eventually hit the 2024 campaign trail to support Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“Let’s elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz!” Jill Biden shouted during her final campaign stop in Durham, North Carolina, the day before the election.
She told The Washington Post that the moment “all of a sudden hit me, and it surprised me.”
“You have to realize: I’ve been in politics for almost 50 years. I’ve been a political spouse,” Jill Biden said.
After Trump won the election, Jill Biden was seen chatting amiably with the president-elect during reopening ceremonies for the Notre Dame cathedral on Dec. 7, 2024.
The two spoke after French First Lady Brigitte Macron, who was previously seated between them, left her seat.
The first lady said Trump told her he'd had a “good meeting with your husband in the Oval Office” after Biden invited him to the White House in November 2024.
“Yes,” Jill Biden said she told Trump. “Because you’re both talkers.”
When asked by the newspaper why she spoke to Trump or smiled and posed with him during his White House visit, Jill Biden said, “Joe and I respect our institutions, our traditions.
“What would be the point of nastiness?” she asked.
When the interview turned to whether Biden would have had the fortitude to lead the country for another four years had he stayed in the race and defeated Trump, the first lady said, “Sure.”
“I mean, today, I think he has a full schedule. He started early with interviews and briefings, and it just keeps going.”
“It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes, based on the polling,” Biden said.
When asked the question about whether he had the physical and mental strength to serve another term as president, the president was less certain than his wife.
“I don’t know. Who the [expletive] knows?” he said.
“Joe really wrestled with that decision,” Jill Biden told The Washington Post.
“I mean, we started—he started at the point where he said he wasn’t going to pardon Hunter. But then I think things changed. Circumstances changed, and it became quite apparent and obvious that the Republicans weren’t going to stop.”
David C. Weiss, the prosecutor assigned to investigate Hunter Biden, recently said in a final report made public on Jan. 13 that the cases against the president’s son were based on “thorough, impartial investigations, not partisan politics,” and criticized the pardon.
Biden issued Hunter a full and unconditional pardon for any “offenses against the United States” between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024, after Hunter was charged for lying on a federal gun application and following his guilty plea in a California tax case.
When asked about the legacy she hopes to leave as first lady, Jill Biden said she hopes women see her as a “reflection of themselves.”
“You know, a mom, a grandmom, a working woman, a sister, a friend.”
