Jill Biden's freshly published memoir is drawing sharp criticism from the very aides who once stood closest to her husband, with several now accusing the former first lady of distorting events and refusing to take responsibility for the political damage her family inflicted on the Democratic Party.
Excerpts from "View from the West Wing: A Memoir" have sparked particular fury among former Biden officials over what they see as a fundamentally dishonest account of the lead-up to the president's withdrawal from the 2024 race. The book and Jill Biden's recent media appearance mark the couple's continued high-profile presence even as Democratic leaders have signaled a desire to move past the Biden era and focus on the party's future.
"I just wish they would give some more time and space and let people move on," one former Biden official said. "It all feels so disingenuous."
The core grievance among these ex-staffers centers on what they view as the Bidens' refusal to acknowledge their role in the fiasco. Multiple former aides point to a pattern where both Joe and Jill Biden are blaming external forces rather than examining their own decisions. One official drew a direct line between Jill's new book and Kamala Harris's post-election messaging, suggesting both are deflecting: "The throughline between her book and Harris' is that they blame everyone but themselves for the loss."
The contradiction that has particularly angered insiders involves Jill Biden's newly revealed account of her reaction to Joe Biden's catastrophic June debate performance. In the memoir, she describes being "frightened" and writes that she wondered if her husband had suffered a stroke, comparing him to "an AI hologram of the man we knew, and the hologram was glitching."
Yet in the immediate aftermath of that same debate, Jill Biden appeared at a campaign rally alongside her husband the same evening, stopped at a Waffle House with him, and introduced him at another rally the following day after an overnight flight. The stark contrast between her private alleged thoughts and her public actions has left former staffers incredulous about the credibility of her account.
Even Andrew Bates, one of the president's most fierce defenders during his tenure as spokesperson, expressed frustration. While telling the New York Post that the book likely won't impact the upcoming midterms, Bates made clear his disappointment: "I don't see why that painful conversation for the party needed to be publicly reopened right now."
A former senior Biden official highlighted another inconsistency in Jill Biden's narrative. She simultaneously insists her husband had not declined while also questioning her own objectivity in assessing his condition. "Had he grown too old for the job and I hadn't noticed?" she writes. "I didn't think so, but could I be objective enough to be sure?" This hedging has struck former aides as fundamentally evasive.
One former Biden campaign aide captured the broader sense of betrayal felt in the ex-president's orbit. "It's just so selfish. The Bidens preached selflessness and service above all, and every decision they've made since he decided to run for reelection has been about themselves. It's also ironic, the only people undermining President Biden's legacy are the people closest to him."
A former senior official offered a pointed counterargument about what the Bidens should be doing with their platform: "President Biden actually has a legacy that is impactful and should be celebrated at some point, getting us through the pandemic and passing life-changing bills. Why does he keep stepping on it himself?"
Author James Rodriguez: "The Bidens are writing themselves into a corner, and their own loyalists are calling them out for it. That's the real story here."
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