Jill Biden leads one of lame-duck husband’s last cabinet meetings before hosting Rose Garden party without him
WASHINGTON — Who’s in charge here, again?
First lady Jill Biden did most of the talking Friday at the public portion of what may be President Biden’s last Cabinet meeting — before showing the cast of “The West Wing” around the Oval Office and hosting a Rose Garden event without her husband.
“The work is hard and the days are long. And yes, there are times when the weight of all we have before us can just feel too heavy to carry,” Jill, 73, said in the Rose Garden from a podium presidents usually occupy.
“But that’s where the heart lies, where the future is created, side-by-side with our family of true believers,” she said at the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the NBC series.
The first lady spoke alongside actor Martin Sheen, who played President Jed Bartlet, and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who extolled Joe Biden — who had already decamped for home in Delaware — for ending his re-election campaign amid a Democratic mutiny over his apparent cognitive decline.
Hours earlier, Jill dominated her husband’s first Cabinet meeting since October 2023 — taking over after brief introductory remarks by the sitting president, who spent much of his two-minute intro speaking about her.
“Before I begin this Cabinet meeting, I want to discuss very briefly the need for Congress to pass a continued resolution. It’s critical, we have 10 days for Congress to pass a short term funding bill,” said Joe Biden, 81.
“We have four months left in the administration, and we’re going to keep running through the tape because the vice president and I are determined to keep making sure that democracy delivers what the American people are asking for,” added Biden, who has taken extensive vacation time in the final stretch of his term.
“We’re grateful that Jill is here today — I heard that clapping, it wasn’t for me,” he went on. “Across previous administrations, first ladies have attended these meetings for specific reasons. This is the first time Jill has joined us, and it goes to show how important the issue is, which she is about to speak to.”
“It’s all yours, kid,” the 46th president signed off.
The first lady, wearing oversized clear-rimmed glasses and reading from a binder of notes, touted a list of recent women’s health-related funding allocations and executive-agency initiatives.
Her remarks were more than double the length of her husband’s comments.
Attendees were given folders of notes whose covers were emblazoned with both Joe and Jill Biden’s signatures — drawing online ridicule.
“Wow. A visibly exhausted Joe Biden just held a full Cabinet meeting for the first time in 11 months and immediately turned the mic over to his wife,” tweeted Steve Cortes, an ex-adviser to former President Donald Trump.
“Who is running the country?”
Former Rep. Scott Taylor (R-Va.) chimed in, “First Presidential cabinet meeting in a year and Jill Biden runs it. What the Hell is going on?”
Jill Biden, widely regarded as the most powerful first lady in over a century, has held strong sway in the West Wing, especially before other national Democrats forced the president to relinquish the party’s nomination on July 21 over concerns about his mental acuity, resulting in Vice President Kamala Harris’ sudden substitution at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Although Biden insisted Friday he’d be “running through the tape” of his term, the president has been on vacation for two-thirds of all days over the past month — first at a donor’s ranch in California and then at his Delaware homes.
Jill Biden is considered by insiders to be the most influential first lady since Edith Wilson, who tightly controlled access to her husband, President Woodrow Wilson, after he suffered a debilitating stroke in October 1919.
Her tenure hasn’t been without controversy — drawing outrage from White House aides for tolerating alleged bullying and sexual harassment from her top aide Anthony Bernal, whom she calls her “work husband.”
The first lady’s role in the Cabinet meeting led to striking images of her commanding the room as she spoke about various federal agencies.
“In February, ARPA-H, the agency Joe created to pursue breakthrough health research at lightning speed, launched its first ever sprint for women’s health,” Jill Biden said in her presentation.
“The $100 million investment will fund innovations that will be life changing for women. Then a month later, NIH committed another $200 million to fund interdisciplinary women’s health research — for example, looking at how menopause affects heart health, brain health and food health.
“In May, the Department of Defense and the VA launched a new joint effort to improve research for women in the military and for women veterans. On Monday, I’ll be at the Clinton Global Initiative to make a new announcement, and we will share more.
“Then, in June, the Department of Health and Human Health Services announced new funding to address the unique mental health and substance use treatment needs of women. Your agencies are strengthening standards so that when the government funds research it includes women.”
The first lady directed the Cabinet secretaries that “we have to keep working across government and the private sector to incentivize innovative health research for women.”
“It’s time to write a new story of health care in this country, one where women get the answers we need, where the United States continues to be home to the most cutting-edge research in the world, and where everyone can live healthier lives,” she concluded..
Joe Biden left the White House in the early afternoon to prepare for a weekend summit in Wilmington with the leaders of the “Quad” — the four-country group including Australia, India, Japan and the US — with scant public events for that international gathering sparking protests from the White House press corps.
