WASHINGTON, DC — Former first lady Jill Biden on Wednesday had a blunt message for Democrats criticizing her White House memoir for reopening old wounds tied to the 2024 election, telling them to “say it to my face.”
At an event at the Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, DC, for “View From the East Wing,” she was asked about quotes from Andrew Bates, a former spokesperson for the Biden White House, who told The New York Post, “I don’t see why that painful conversation for the party needed to be publicly reopened right now.”
Biden, 75, brushed off the criticism, noting her memoir only “had one chapter on politics” and the rest was about her four years as first lady.
“I want to say to Andrew: Call me up, and say it to my face, buddy,” she charged.
Biden also claimed that she’s as honest with husband Joe Biden as she is with her students after she was read some of the reviews of her teaching from Rate My Professor, where her students noted she was a tough but honest teacher.
“He is the love of my life, but I have to tell you I’m honest with him. Because no one else will be,” Biden said of her 83-year-old husband.
She added that she’s the same with their grandchildren.
“I’m trying to make them better — not worse,” she said of her tough love.
But when it came to that infamous debate in June 2024, where Joe Biden’s disastrous performance resulted in his exit from the race, she said she hadn’t seen her husband to be honest with him before he went on stage.
“I was out campaigning,” she explained. “So I didn’t see him at debate camp at Camp David.”
She also said she never wanted to relive that moment and said this book tour has been painful because she keeps getting asked about it in interviews.
“I never wanted to see that moment again in my life but since I’ve been doing press for two days, they’re like, ‘Watch this clip,’” she said.
Many Democrats have questioned the former first lady’s role in Joe’s decision to run for a second term amid concerns about his physical and cognitive health.
Biden said she saw her husband age but didn’t think it was out of the ordinary.
“I saw Joe aging. My God, we all saw him aging,” she said as the crowd laughed.
She said at night she could hear his stutter get worse, but “I thought this was natural aging.”
Her memoir, “View from the East Wing,” reveals there was much the couple didn’t speak about — including a concern she had about his health.
The then-president was waking repeatedly during the night in their final year at the White House, she wrote.
But she respected his privacy and only spoke to his doctors about her concern and did not address it with her husband. The couple didn’t talk about their private health concerns, she noted, pointing out she didn’t speak to him about her menopause symptoms.
After he left the White House, Biden was diagnosed with Stage Four prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.
Otherwise, Jill Biden said the two had an honest relationship and that she would never lie for him.
“I love Joe. He’s the love of my life. Would I lie for him? No,” she said.
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Journalist Paola Ramos was grilling the former first lady about her definition of loyalty, pointing out she stood by her husband in the aftermath of the calamitous June 2024 debate against Donald Trump.
In the aftermath, Jill accompanied Joe Biden to an event at an Atlanta Waffle House and then to a rally with supporters, where she praised him for “answering every question.”
But she shrugged off queries as if she were blind to his faults.
“Was I blinded? I don’t know,” Biden said.
She said the doctors told her that Joe was fine. “The doctors said he was fine. They said, ‘Jill, he’s fine,” she noted.
Wednesday was Biden’s 75th birthday, and she wore a white corsage on her wrist, telling the audience it was a gift from Joe.
“It’s a tradition,” she said, explaining that her husband gave it to her that morning in New York City. The Biden family had gone out to dinner together Tuesday night in New York to mark the occasion.
She was dressed up for the occasion, wearing a sparkly black blazer with white pants and shiny gold shoes. The audience sang “Happy Birthday” to her.
The event was something of a homecoming for the former first lady. Several staff from her East Wing office were in the audience, as were people from her exercise class. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close friend of the Bidens, sat together.
The former president didn’t join her at her DC event — unlike her Tuesday one in New York City, which he crashed, asking his longtime wife a cringy question.
Still, Jill Biden spent the evening trying to cement his legacy, arguing he didn’t keep grudges and was a sweet, thoughtful man.
Would he have empathy for Donald Trump, she was asked.
The former first lady refused to answer directly, saying to the audience, “What do you guys think?”
“No,” the audience yelled.
“That’s my answer,” she said.
One thing she refused to address was a message she left at the White House. In her memoir, she recounts how on their last morning at the White House, she wrote a message in the frost of the window.
“Hell was freezing over,” she quipped when asked about it.
But, as to what she wrote, that will remain a secret.
“I’ll never tell,” she said.
