(HorizonPost.com) – While many have questioned why President Biden would insist on running for a second term in office at the age of 81, one historian believes that the answer lies with the First Lady, Real Clear Politics reported.
While appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation” last week, presidential historian Douglas Brinkley suggested that, unlike some former first ladies who couldn’t wait to get out of Washington, D.C., Jill Biden revels in the power that comes with being first lady.
Brinkley said Mrs. Biden is a “vital part” of the reason the 81-year-old president is seeking a second term. He noted that Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Harry Truman both chose not to run for reelection in part because their wives were eager to return home.
But for Jill Biden, who teaches at Northern Virginia Community College, Washington, D.C. is her home.
According to Brinkley, Jill is not like Lady Bird Johnson or Bess Truman. She enjoys the power and wants to remain at the heart of it. Brinkley also suggested that Mrs. Biden is seeking “some sense of revenge.”
Brinkley dismissed the reports that Biden might decide to step aside so the Democrats could choose another nominee, calling the idea “childish” in light of Mrs. Biden’s influence over the president.
Brinkley’s theory certainly aligns with Jill Biden’s role in fighting back against special counsel Robert Hur’s report in early February.
Hur ultimately chose not to prosecute President Biden for his mishandling of classified documents, noting that no jury would convict someone who came off as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Hur noted that during Biden’s interview with the special counsel’s office, the president had difficulty remembering basic facts like the years he was vice president and the year his son Beau died of cancer.
It was Jill Biden who went on the offensive, sending out fundraising emails blasting the special counsel for his report and defending her 81-year-old husband’s vigor.
In a report on Mrs. Biden taking the lead in responding to Hur’s report, NBC News noted that sources close to the First Lady said she would be “an active campaigner and fundraiser” in her husband’s reelection campaign.
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