OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden is expected to announce his next campaign for president not long after his State of the Union address, but he may not be the only Biden with their eyes on the presidency. Fox News opinion columnist Liz Peek suggested in an op-ed this week that First Lady Jill Biden could be positioning herself for the job.
While not actually looking to be elected as president, Peek said that as the president’s mental faculties decline the first lady could become more of the de facto president. The columnist said that after the departure of Chief of Staff Ron Klain a power vacuum was created in the West Wing and Jill Biden has become an increasingly more powerful presence.
“She weighs in regularly on the president’s schedule and presentation and has frequently been caught on camera steering Joe away from pesky reporters. An embarrassing video recently captured yet another instance of the president refusing to address questions from the press – on this occasion about the FBI searching Biden’s home. It occurred at a Lunar New Year event, where Jill hustled Joe away from questioners and guided him onto the stage, holding his hand and issuing instructions,” Peek wrote in her opinion piece.
“Before we get too accustomed to our president being led like a trained Bassett hound on a leash, please try to envision Hillary Clinton manhandling Bill or Melania telling Donald where to go and to whom he should speak. No, you cannot,” she said.
Peek pointed out that after President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke his wife Edith effectively took over for him.
“This has really gotten concerning because nobody, frankly in all fairness to the first lady, nobody elected her to answer questions for the president on issues that the press may have questioned,” Rep. Doug Collins said after the most recent episode.
Fox News reported:
Dr. Jill has apparently become more assertive. According to an NBC News analysis last fall, Jill has carried Joe’s message to more places more frequently than Joe himself. NBC reports she wields “unparalleled influence” in the White House. Last year she burst into a meeting of Joe’s top aides, furious that they had allowed him to take questions at a news conference for nearly two hours. She evidently does not think Joe can stand up to two hours of inquisition.
Most likely, she worries that Joe will make yet another embarrassing goof that the White House will have to spend days correcting, as when the president appeared to condone Russia making a “minor” incursion into Ukraine or hinting that U.S. GIs were poised to fight on Ukrainian soil.
Last month, former Former Fox News star and current top-rated SiriuxXM podcaster Megyn Kelly tore into Jill Biden after Fox Sports introduced her during Sunday’s NFC Championship Game in Philadelphia as “doctor.”
“Dr. Jill Biden” is technically accurate because she has a Ph.D. in education. But Kelly ripped her for being a “wannabe” for not having a “real” degree and for “insisting on this fake title,” the New York Post reported.
Biden and Goodell were seated at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, where the Eagles decisively defeated the San Francisco 49ers to advance to Super Bowl LVII. The television network’s graphics introduced her as “Dr. Jill Biden — First Lady of the United States.”
“Announcers for this Eagles-49ers game just spotted the First Lady in a box and of course call her ‘Dr. Jill Biden,’” Kelly tweeted. “Wonder if she realizes what a wannabe she looks like insisting on this fake title.”
Kelly noted further: “Get a real MD or just work on your self-esteem.”
Announcers for this Eagles-49ers game just spotted the First Lady in a box and of course call her “Dr. Jill Biden.” Wonder if she realizes what a wannabe she looks like insisting on this fake title. Get a real MD or just work on your self-esteem.
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) January 29, 2023
The Post noted further:
In 2007, Jill Biden earned a doctorate of education from the University of Delaware. When her husband, President Biden, served as Barack Obama’s vice president, Jill Biden taught English full-time at Northern Virginia Community College.
Jill Biden’s insistence on using the honorific even though she’s not a physician triggered widespread debate about which Ph.D. recipients should be called “doctor.”
