Jill Biden caught herself during a Wednesday event at the White House after having made an ill-considered reference to the “joy” Americans are now feeling entering the holiday season after the 2024 election, claiming attendees were “reading into” her remarks.
The first lady went on a tangent about the “joy” of the holidays — a buzzword that had defined Vice President Kamala Harris’ short-lived campaign — while speaking at a conference on advancing women’s health research.
Jill, 73, urged attendees to take note of the White House décor and “feel, I don’t know, a little, a sense of joy. Because I think we all need like this, you know, we all need to feel joy now.”
“You’re all reading into that!” she blurted out, making the audience laugh.
The first lady and the vice president have had a frosty public relationship after Harris, 60, succeeded her husband as the Democratic presidential nominee — but ultimately lost to Trump.
But the White House has denied any private tension between the Biden family and Harris — even as President Biden and Jill ignored the VP on Sunday at the Kennedy Center Honors.
The Bidens didn’t acknowledge Harris or her husband Doug Emhoff standing right next to them and appeared to avoid all eye contact when making their grand entrance — and a source with direct knowledge of the event told The Post that the couples declined to speak with each other the entire night.
The night before, Jill had chatted with Trump, 78, at the re-opening of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris — a conversation that the former president told The Post could not have been any “nicer.”
“Very nice. She couldn’t have been nicer,” Trump said of their brief talk.
“It’s politics. You have to get used to it,” he said about past grievances between himself and her husband. “She was very nice and we had a very nice conversation.”
Biden, 82, also joked throughout his remarks about women’s health, making a reference to the brain surgery he had years ago.
“I had two nine-hour operations. Took the top of my head off twice, couldn’t find the brain the first time,” the president ribbed.
He also revealed that he and Jill will continue to “fight like hell” despite leaving the White House next month.
“We’re not going away,” he said, possibly indicating a desire to remain in politics.
