When he took office, First Lady Jill Biden said her husband “had so many hopes,” but there were “issues of the time” that needed to be resolved first, both at home and overseas.
On Saturday, 71-year-old Joe Biden appeared at a DNC fundraising event in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
She said to donors present at the event, “[The President] had so many ambitions and intentions for things he wanted to do, but every time you turned around, he had to face the problems of the day.”
He’s simply had a lot of stuff thrown at him, she continued.
Joe Biden has encountered challenges during his administration, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the withdrawal of soldiers from Afghanistan, growing inflation, and the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
The first lady’s comments follow a recent New York Times survey that revealed 64% of Democratic voters would prefer a different candidate than Biden in 2024.
Who could have imagined that Roe v. Wade would be overturned by the Supreme Court? Perhaps we anticipated it, but we still didn’t believe it, she remarked.
“The level of gun violence in our nation is abhorrent.” We were not prepared for the battle in Ukraine.
According to a New York Times/Siena College poll issued on Monday, only 13% of Americans believed that the country was moving in the right way, while Biden had a 33 percent approval rating.
I am aware that there are many doubters who predict that the midterm elections will be disastrous. Okay.
Republicans put up a lot of effort and remain a unit, good or bad. We simply need to put in more effort,’ Jill Biden added.
Jill Biden’s personal plans were similarly hampered by setbacks at home and overseas.
Okay, I was Second Lady, I was telling myself. On community colleges, I worked.
On military families, I worked. I’ve dealt with cancer. They were intended to be my main areas of attention
. But then, with everything going on, I had to be the First Lady of the moment when we arrived [in the White House].
Jill Biden made the comments while on a three-day trip in Massachusetts.
After a four-day trip to the Middle East, her husband returned to the White House early on Sunday.
While once more downplaying his famed fist bump with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Joe Biden had accused a Saudi official of lying about the subjects covered in his private meeting with the prince.
The Washington Post’s editor and Khashoggi’s widow, who was killed in a brutal assassination that US intelligence services claim bin Salman ordered, both responded angrily to the photo of the amicable fist bump.
Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, called a Fox News reporter hours earlier, shortly after Air Force One had departed from Jeddah, and claimed that he “did not hear” Biden question bin Salman, also known as MBS, over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Al-assertion Jubeir appears to be in direct opposition to Biden’s account of the Friday meeting with MBS, in which the president said that he had brought up Khashoggi’s murder “at the top of the conversation” and accused the crown prince of orchestrating the crime.
When questioned on the South Lawn if al-Jubeir was speaking the truth about the meeting, Biden answered categorically, “No.”
Notably, differing reports of the conversation between Biden and MBS and whether Khashoggi’s death was brought up have been provided by Saudi officials.
Faisal bin Farhan, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, appeared to inform reporters on Friday that Biden brought up Khashoggi’s death during the meeting.
According to Bin Farhan, MBS retaliated by criticising the US for its own human rights violations, including the infamous maltreatment of detainees by military troops at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.
MBS allegedly ordered the murder of Khashoggi, a Saudi national living in the United States and a critic of the government, according to a report by American intelligence.
After Biden gave MBS a fist bump as he arrived at the Al Salman Royal Palace in Jeddah for a series of Friday night meetings, Fred Ryan, editor and CEO of The Washington Post, which employed Khashoggi, referred to the act as “shameful.”
Ryan stated in a statement that the fist bump between President Biden and Mohammed bin Salman was “shameful” and “worse than a handshake.” It conveyed a degree of familiarity and warmth that grants MBS the unjustified redemption he has been fervently seeking.
Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, expressed her prediction of her late lover’s response to the fist bump: “Is this the responsibility you promised for my murder?” You hold MBS’s upcoming victims’ blood on your hands.
A reporter read Cengiz’s remarks to Biden as well, and the president was subsequently questioned about them.
The president responded, “I’m sorry she feels that way.” “Back then, I was direct.” I was open and honest today.