First Lady Jill Biden assisted President Joe Biden, 81, on Friday in the first White House cabinet meeting in almost a year, reportedly the first time she has participated in such a meeting.
Biden will leave office in January after stepping aside from the presidential race following a debate with former President Donald Trump in which he slurred his words and appeared unable to speak clearly about the challenges facing the nation. Since the president’s departure from the race, Republicans have questioned who is running the country.
Rumors suggest Jill Biden did not want her husband to drop out, as son Hunter Biden’s tax case sentencing had not yet been set. In September a federal judge scheduled the sentencing for before Biden leaves office, leading Republicans to believe that he might pardon his son or commute the sentence.
Jill Biden attended the meeting, appearing to sit at the head of the table, to share an update on a White House women’s health research initiative:
The president also said a few words during the meeting. “I want to discuss very briefly the need for Congress to pass a continuing resolution,” the president read from a script about government funding. “It’s critical.”
“We need to continue to implement the historic laws we passed,” Biden added. “They’ve allowed us to invest in America, rebuild our infrastructure and implement our historic laws.”
CNN reported on the cabinet meeting:
Coming almost a year after he last convened his Cabinet, and exactly four months until the next president is inaugurated, Biden’s position at Friday’s meeting is drastically different from when he last spoke to his top officials.
He is no longer a candidate for president, and is now staring down his final months in office. His unexpected withdrawal from the race over the summer prompted White House officials to urgently assemble his final-months agenda that hadn’t been considered before his decision.
Biden wants to ensure Americans know what he accomplished while also making irreversible as much of his record as possible, should former President Donald Trump return to the Oval Office.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.