Jill Biden is now running Cabinet meetings:
The New York Post reported that Jill Biden, seated at the head of the Cabinet Room’s board table, “read from a binder about maternal health initiatives for four-and-a-half minutes after her husband spoke for just two minutes off the top of the meeting.”
The president traditionally sits at the center of the table with Cabinet members seated in order of the founding of their departments. The last sitting first lady to attend her husband’s Cabinet meeting appears to be Hillary Clinton.
The amount of influence the first lady has over Joe Biden, and therefore his administration, has been a frequent source of controversy, and numerous commentators took to social media to criticize her presence at the meeting.
The New York Post said that Jill Biden is “considered by insiders to be the most influential first lady since Edith Wilson, who tightly controlled access to her husband, President Woodrow Wilson, after he suffered a debilitating stroke in October 1919.”
Digital strategist Greg Price referenced this comparison, saying, “She’s literally Edith Wilson except right out in the open in a 24/7 news cycle and nobody in the media cares.”
“Wow. A visibly exhausted Joe Biden just held a full Cabinet meeting for the first time in 11 months and immediately turned the mic over to his wife, Jill,” previous adviser to former President Donald Trump Steve Cortes said. He went on to ask, “Who is running the country?”
Political commentator Kate Hyde observed, “Jill Biden is kicking off the first cabinet meeting the White House has had in almost a year and we’re expected to act like this is normal.”
It’s not good, but it could have been worse. At least they were discussing women’s health issues and not the war with Russia or the Middle East.