
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Former First Lady Jill Biden’s book raises awkward questions for a Democratic party trying to move on and rebuild itself for the midterm elections.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Minutes after Joe Biden left the presidential debate stage in the summer of 2024, his wife, Jill Biden, led a crowd of supporters in a chant of “four more years.” “Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question. You knew all the facts,” the then First Lady said from the stage in Atlanta. Two years later, Jill Biden is telling a very different story.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since,” she told CBS News interview. “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Joe Biden’s horrendous debate performance against Donald Trump was the beginning of the end of his political career. A month later, he abandoned his re-election bid, plagued by persistent questions about his age and fitness for office. By November, Trump had handily defeated Biden’s vice-president Kamala Harris to secure another four years in the White House. A year and a half after her husband left the White House, Jill Biden has returned to the political spotlight, embarking on a media tour to promote her “tell-all” memoir, <em>View from the East Wing.</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Even before embarking on her full-fledged promotion of the book, the former First Lady’s initial TV appearances, as well as leaked excerpts of the memoir, have raised uncomfortable questions for both the Bidens and the Democratic Party at a time when most national Democrats want to remain focused on November’s midterm elections, when they are hoping to retake control of both chambers of Congress from Trump and the Republicans.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The Bidens and their inner circle have made it incredibly challenging for Democrats in Congress and Democratic candidates, recruits and incumbents throughout the country to defend them,” said Michael LaRosa, a former press secretary to Jill Biden. He described the intraparty backlash to her book as “remarkably sharp, pointed and relentless.”</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">As the Democratic Party appears to be gaining steam heading into the November Midterms, the First Lady’s book has generated unpleasant headlines and prompted fresh handwringing for the party.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In leaked excerpts, the former First Lady elaborated on her husband’s disastrous debate performance, writing: “Is he short-circuiting? Is this a stroke? It felt like we were watching an AI hologram of the man we knew, and the hologram was glitching. Has he been drugged?”</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This has brought a rehash of accusations of a cover-up Bidens cognitive decline by the Dems in the media, at a time when they would rather talk about the high cost of living and increased gas prices under President Trump.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We need this as much as we need a hole in the head,” said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist who worked in the Senate for years.</p>

Jill Biden Rolls Joe Under the Bus as Dems Try to Move On to Midterms
