OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
First Lady Jill Biden works behind the scenes to protect President Joe Biden from becoming physically worn out, while his aides have rolled their eyes over his claims that he feels youthful, according to a new report.
“Jill Biden has an extraordinary amount of influence over the president’s schedule,” Axios reporter Alex Thompson said during a Tuesday appearance on “CNN This Morning.”
“Now, it’s usual for first ladies to keep an eye on the schedule,” Thompson said. “It is not so normal for a first lady to be crafting the presidential schedule.”
Joe Biden recently turned 81, making him the oldest U.S. president in history. Outward signs of his aging, including difficulty speaking, trouble remembering details, and frequent falls, have all led tens of millions of Americans to conclude he is not physically or mentally fit for another four-year term.
Thompson went on to say that Biden’s advanced age also creates conflicts with aides over the management of his schedule.
“A lot of aides that I have talked to have been struck that Biden behind closed doors repeatedly says, ‘I feel so much younger than my age.’ He says it so often and with such real sincerity that there’s become this tension where he ends up overextending himself,” Thompson explained.
“Aides feel he doesn’t know his own physical limitations and tries to do too much,” the reporter continued. “That has this adverse effect where he ends up wearing himself out. Even though he is doing more events, he actually presents as more tired, which is then how you get these poll numbers that show that over 70% of voters have serious concerns about him doing a second term.”
Biden’s claims about feeling so young “can draw eye rolls” from aides who think that the president “doesn’t realize how old he can come across,” per Axios.
In addition, Jill is also “very involved in making sure [Biden] gets enough rest. She’s also been pushing him on his diet, trying to get him to eat more fish and salmon and a little less junk food,” Thompson told CNN. “She is very much in this role of making sure that the president, who is the oldest president ever, is staying healthy, getting enough rest and being able to present as vigorous going into this re-election.”
That’s because the first lady views herself as a “protector” of the president, especially as he attempts to hit the campaign trail in what is expected to be a rematch with former President Donald Trump.
Jill Biden has apparently been worried about her husband’s health for years.
“Joe’s working too hard,” Jill would tell former chief of staff Steve Ricchetti, according to Joe Biden’s 2017 memoir “Promise Me, Dad.”
“He’s exhausted. He’s not sleeping. It’s going to kill him,” Jill Biden then said of her husband, and that was when he was in his “early 70s,” Thompson said.
Meanwhile, Trump started his week with some more good news in the form of polling as 2023 winds down and the 2024 campaign cycle begins to ramp up with first-in-the-nation primaries less than a month away.
According to a new Morning Consult/Bloomberg News poll, Trump is beating Biden 47 to 42 percent across seven swing states.
“Trump leads by three percent in Arizona, by seven points in Georgia, by four points in Michigan, by five points in Nevada, by 11 points in North Carolina, by a single point in Pennsylvania, and by six points in Wisconsin,” the UK’s Independent reported, citing the survey.
It comes as Trump continues to pull ahead of the remaining GOP field in Iowa, where the first-in-the-nation primary takes place next month.
Other surveys show that the vast majority of Democratic voters also do not believe Biden is fit to serve another term.
