On Friday, First Lady Jill Biden joined President Joe Biden, 81, for the first White House cabinet meeting in nearly a year, marking her inaugural participation in such an event.
President Biden is set to leave office in January after withdrawing from the presidential race, a decision that followed a debate with former President Donald Trump during which he struggled with his speech and seemed unable to articulate the nation’s challenges effectively. In light of the president’s exit from the race, Republicans have raised concerns regarding the leadership of the country.
There are speculations that Jill Biden was opposed to her husband’s decision to withdraw, particularly as the sentencing for their son Hunter Biden’s tax case had not yet been determined. In September, a federal judge scheduled the sentencing to occur before President Biden’s departure from office, prompting Republicans to speculate that he may consider pardoning his son or commuting the sentence.
Jill Biden participated in the meeting, seemingly positioned at the head of the table, to provide an update on a women’s health research initiative from the White House.
Watch:
First Lady joins President Biden in cabinet meeting.https://t.co/oOTC2OOFrP pic.twitter.com/0HheluUx3K
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 20, 2024
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.”
Jill, Ed.D., is now assisting whatever is left of Crooked Joe Biden in leading cabinet meetings pic.twitter.com/qvL1fzZ4gX
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 20, 2024
