The Bidens are back in the political spotlight, and Democrats hoping to put the past behind them are not happy about it.
Former first lady Jill Biden dredged up concerns this week regarding former President Joe Biden‘s health and allegations of a cover-up in clips from a sit-down interview as part of a book tour to promote her upcoming memoir, View from The East Wing.
But Jill Biden’s comments about being afraid Joe Biden had a stroke during the 2024 presidential debate that effectively ended his political career come as Democrats contend with a lack of leadership and would rather be underscoring President Donald Trump‘s own issues before November’s midterm elections.
“They suck,” one Democratic strategist told the Washington Examiner of the Bidens.
For another Democratic strategist, Garry South, it is “definitely not helpful” for the Bidens to “resurface” at this point in time.
“It’s particularly unconstructive for Jill Biden to be relitigating the issue of Biden’s decline by basically suggesting he was sharp as a tack until his complete meltdown in the debate, which she says caught her by total surprise,” South told the Washington Examiner. “It just adds to the narrative about a gigantic cover-up in the Biden White House and family to hide his cognitive and physical decline from the American people.”
But Jill Biden’s former White House press secretary Michael DeRosa went further, criticizing her memoir and comments as “tone-deaf timing” in an election year and “major malpractice from a public relations perspective to wait two years to tell this story after the public has really made up its mind and formed their impressions and opinions about her and about what took place.”
“If they care about their relationships in the Democratic Party, they would have done this in a less political moment,” DeRosa told the Washington Examiner. “The vice president did it last fall. They could have had their book done last summer, and they could have done this a year and a half before the midterms. But Democrats aren’t happy. Democrats are, if anything, Democrats are more resentful, more skeptical, and more hostile as a result of the clips we’ve seen so far from CBS.”
“Books are supposed to answer questions, not create new ones,” he added.
In an interview that will air in its entirety on CBS News Sunday Morning this weekend, one that is likely to be her easiest because of the controversy now stirred, Jill Biden describes how she became “frightened” during her husband’s debate against Trump in the summer of 2024 because she thought he was “having a stroke.”
During that debate, after shuffling onto the stage, coughing into the microphone, having a raspy voice, and looking at Trump with his mouth agape, Joe Biden lost his train of thought when answering a question about the so-called care economy and drug prices.
“I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” Jill Biden said of that moment in a clip pushed on Wednesday. “I don’t know what happened. As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”
In her memoir, which will be published next Tuesday, Jill Biden also tries to blame the disastrous performance by suggesting Joe Biden rehearsed too much for the debate, traveled too much beforehand, was tired, was sick, and potentially had taken codeine cough syrup or Ambien, according to excerpts provided to the Atlantic on Thursday.
In addition, the Atlantic on Thursday reported that Jill Biden regretted not asking that Joe Biden take a cognitive or blood test after the debate.
But Jill Biden is not the only member of the clan to generate headlines in recent weeks. Joe Biden on Wednesday sued the Justice Department to stop it from making public interviews recorded by his ghostwriter in 2016 and 2017 that were obtained as part of an investigation into the retention of classified documents after the Obama administration.
Joe Biden, who last year was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, is also poised to publish his own memoir as he tries to fundraise for his presidential library in Delaware.
To add to it, Hunter Biden reemerged as well last week, starting an X account before sitting down for an interview of his own with conservative personality Candace Owens, in which he alleged Israeli military and intelligence agents encouraged the corruption accusations against him and his father.
The Bidens’ defenders argue there is a difference of opinion between Democrats online and in Washington, D.C., and the general public. Allies point to surveys, including a Harvard-Harris poll conducted in February, showing Biden’s approval numbers are improving as people compare his record with that of Trump, particularly regarding the economy and the cost of living.
One Democratic strategist who requested anonymity to discuss the topic told the Washington Examiner that Hunter Biden is a good surrogate because he sounds like an average person and has been open about his struggles with addiction.
Another Democratic strategist who also requested anonymity told the Washington Examiner that “people have already processed and moved on from Joe Biden being too old to be president,” and although people “definitely still have concerns and a lack of faith in Democrats,” the source said they would be “surprised to see any data about relitigating the debate having an impact.”
“He was forced out of the race by his own party,” that strategist said. “While it feels painful and traumatic for those who had to deal with this at the time, the public is focused on the current president and related concerns: high gas prices, immigration concerns, Epstein.”
A third Democratic strategist agreed, citing how Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms actually asked for his endorsement in her race.
“So depending on the race dynamics, his voice still carries weight,” said the strategist, who also requested anonymity to discuss the Bidens. “So all in all, I think the question of good-bad for Dems is sort of secondary to everything else going on, with the caveat that in certain moments his voice can be beneficial.”
Regardless, the White House and Republicans have countered Democrats’ assertions, with the administration dismissing Biden as “the worst president in American history.”
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“Joe Biden, the autopen, and his radical-left handlers created the worst border crisis in history, were soft-on-crime, portrayed weakness to our enemies and allies, and championed America-Last policies,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told the Washington Examiner. “President Trump was elected with a resounding mandate to turn the page on the failed Biden years, and he is working every day to make our country greater than ever before.”
Republican National Committee deputy communications director Delanie Bomar quipped: “If the Bidens want to visit battleground districts on his damage control tour, we will buy the plane tickets.”